Xan Helsing
by seraphim2db
Summary: What if Cordelia didn't leave for LA yet and accompanied Xander on his road trip during the summer before season four. While driving out of SunnyD, they nearly hit an old woman, have a car accident, and are then sent back in time to 1898 Romania.
1. Prologue

**Xan Helsing**

What if Cordelia didn't leave for LA yet and accompanied Xander on his road trip during the summer before season four. While driving through a strange town, they nearly hit an old woman, have a car accident, and are then sent back in time to 1898 Romania.

Prologue

Borsa, Romania

Night

1898

"Hurry child this fire won't start itself." a tall slightly balding man said back to his daughter. Just by looking at his dirty calloused hands, you could tell that he worked hard all of his life.

Which was part of the reason that he was dissappointed at having a daughter. He had hoped to have a son, someone he could teach to be like him, but his wife had died before she could give him one. He didn't hate the girl, but since his wife was gone he didn't know what to do with her.

"Yes tata." she said as she handed him another log for their bonfire. She was a pretty little fifteen year old with shoulder length black hair and the most amazing brown eyes. After handing her father yet another log, she looked up at him with tired eyes.

She couldn't understand why he seemed to dislike her so. She would do anything for him at a moments notice, but all she wanted from him was to feel loved and for him to just hold her once...just once and tell her that she was pretty. But all he could seem to find in his heart for her was yelling and more work. Every since her mother died...

"Another log child." he said, snapping her out of her reverie.

"Ahhhhhh!" they both heard someone yell out. Giving each other a startled look, they dropped what they were doing and ran into their old house.

"Bunica?" the girl said as she saw her grandmother thrashing wildly on her bed. For the last week or so she had been sickly, but they had never seen her like this before. It was almost like she was possessed. As she got closer she heard her grandmother mumbling something.

"Get back child." her father told her as he grabbed his daughter around the shoulders and gently pushed her back.

"What's wrong with her? What is she saying?" the girl asked as her father looked down at his mother.

"I...I don't know." he replied as he reached down to touch on his mother's forehead. It almost sounded as if she were performing some kind of ritual. As his hand touched her head, she suddenly sat up and stared off into space.

"It is done." she barely got out as she collasped back on the bed and stopped breathing.

"She's...she's dead." the man said sadly as he closed her eyes.

"No!" the girl yelled out as she grabbed onto her father's shirt. First her mother, then her cousin, and now her grandmother. She just wanted to know when all of the death and sadness would end.

"Hush now child. It'll be..." before he could complete his sentence, they heard a loud crash followed by a horn being sounded. Chancing another look at his mother, he grabbed his daughter's arm and dragged her back outside.

Once they got out there, they saw the strangest metal contraption literally wrapped around a tree. As the man and his daughter took a cautious step forward after the horn stopped blaring, the door to the thing opened up and a tall youth stumbled out of it and fell to the ground.

Weakly standing to his feet, they saw that he had a small gash above his right eyebrow. Wobbling on his legs, he looked up at the girl and touched her face.

"Miss Calendar?" Xander managed to get out before darkness claimed him.

1999

"Driving along in my automobile. My baby beside me at the wheel." Xander sang along with the radio as he tapped his fingers on the steering wheel of his uncle Roary's car.

"You do know you're tone deaf right?" Cordy asked as she filed her nails and propped her feet on the dash board.

"Oh, I'm so glad I brought you with me." Xander replied sarcastically as they drove past the exit sign for Sunnydale. Even though he was being sarcastic, he was still telling the truth.

The two had made a truce after graduation. Since he had been nice to her and made sure that she had a nice prom, she promised him that she would be his guide to the states, since she had been to most of them when she was rich.

And he had to admit to himself, it turned out to be the perfect day what with the top down on his convertible, the wind blowing through his hair, and a beautiful woman at his side. Even if it was Cordelia. Hearing a rumbling in the sky, they looked up to see the first droplets of rain fall to the ground. With a groan he raised the top up on the car.

"So how is the apartment hunting coming along?" he asked as he leaned down and started to play with the radio, looking for a decent channel.

"Oh, I got Giles all over that." she said with a smile, that quickly turned into a frown. "Xander watch out!"

Looking back to the highway, Xander saw an old lady wearing an all black dress and rosary beads standing in the middle of the road. For some reason a mysterious fog filled the road. Knowing he wasn't going to be able to stop the car in time, he attempted to swerve but found that the wheel was locked.

"Something's...something's wrong." before he almost collided with the woman she dissappeared in a ghostly fashion and they drove through the fog and violently hit something making the world go black for the both of them.

Lifting his head off of the steering wheel finally ending the blaring of the horn, Xander felt a sharp pain coming from his forehead. Touching it, he pulled his hand back and saw blood. Trying to push through his pain he looked over to see that Cordelia was still knocked out. Besides a small bruise on her cheek, she seemed to be alright. As he opened his door, it fell off of it's hinges and he stumbled out with it.

Standing to his feet, he walked around the car and on wobbly legs he tried to open Cordelia's door, but to no avail. Feeling a pair of eyes on him he turned around and saw a cute girl staring at him. Thinking that the crash must have affected his mind, he looked at the girl closer.

"Miss Calendar?" he asked as he touched her face, before finally letting the darkness claim him.

"Tata, what was he talking about?"

"We'll find that out later." her father said as he looked into Xander's car and saw Cordelia still passed out. "Go into town and get your uncle."

Seeing that his daughter did what she was told he picked Xander off of the ground and took him into his house. He had to find out what the hell was going on.

A/N The reason Xander thought he was looking at miss Calendar is because the girl and the man are the ancestors of the Kalderash people. And the cousin she was thinking about was the girl that Angelus had killed that made her people get angry and turn him into Angel.

Also tata means father and Bunica means grandmother in romanian.


	2. Chapter 1 Legacy pt1

A/N Thanks for all the great reviews. This chapter is short, but I hope you like it anyway. Also to some of the fans of this fic, I've already emailed you my replies.

Chapter 1

Legacy pt. 1

A dark figure wearing a fedora styled hat and a brown overcoat ran quickly through a foreboding dark jungle at night. Ducking pass trees and jumping over stumps, his dirty old brown duster billowed behind him, as he came to a stop to take in his surroundings.

Every time he turned he heard snippets of the sounds of the jungle. Even though he had his hat pulled down covering part of his face, as the pale moon light shone on him, one could tell that he was just a young man with a five o'clock shadow.

Hearing a ceremonial drumbeat and chanting in the distance, he was off once again. Coming into a clearing he saw five figures in dark robes standing over a woman, who was lying on an altar with dark hair wearing a similar white robe. Seeing that one of the figures was about to plunge a knife into her, he threw open his overcoat and whipped out two twin silver revolvers and opened fire.

As all the bodies dropped from the onslaught of bullets that ripped through them, the man with the overcoat on ran over to the girl who was still stuggling against her bonds.

"What the hell took you so long dweeb?" Cordelia asked as Xander put away his guns and pulled out a long knife.

"Why can't I ever get a thanks for saving my butt Xander?" he asked as he started to cut through the rope. "Why do you always have to nag?"

"I see that I was right for bringing you two here." said a feminine voice from the shadows. Sitting up off of the altar Cordelia and Xander saw an old woman, wearing an all black dress emerge out of the shadows.

She looked outwardly harmless, almost like a grandmother type, but the both of them could also sense a huge amount of power radiating off of her.

"Who the hell are you?" Xander asked as he pulled out one of his revolvers, pulled back the hammer and aimed it at her.

"I am merely a friend, Alexander." she said waving a hand in front of him, making his gun dissappear.

"What the..."

"This is the dream world, Alexander. Nothing here is real." she explained as she walked closer to them. "I don't have much time so I must embark my gifts onto you both."

"What are you talking about?" Cordelia asked as she stood behind Xander. Finally the haze cleared from her mind and the last thing she remembered was going on a road trip with Xander, having a car accident, and then waking up here.

"I brought the both of you here, to my time to make sure a vision I had wouldn't come true."

"But why not send for Buffy?" Xander asked as he rubbed at the back of his head. "She's the hero."

"How much you doubt yourselves." she said as she started to fade in and out. "Now I haven't much time." she said as she spread her hands out over their chests. As she did so a reddish glow seemed to emmant from her fingertips.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Giving you back the powers of the spirits of the animal and the warrior." she informed him. "And I give you what's left of my gypsy powers and when the both of you awaken, you will remember nothing of our time together."

Before Xander or Cordelia for that matter could protest about not wanting to be there, they both dissappeared into thin air. With a smile on her face, the old woman looked at the spot where the children once stood and let out a soft sigh.

"Now things will go as it should." she said aloud before vanishing herself.

Letting out a groan and a wince Xander rolled over in his firm bed, finally coming out of his fit of dreams.

'Bed?' he thought to himself as he forced his eyes open. As a steady stream of light shone on his face he quickly closed them. As he tried to move his arm, he felt bandages covering it and his forehead. 'Great, I must be in the hospital again. Now what the hell is going on?'

Feeling a certain kind of warmth coming from beside him, he turned over in bed opened his eyes and stared directly into Cordy's face. Startled she let out a loud scream before sitting up in bed.

"Xander what the hell are you doing in my bed!" she screeched out, making them both wince with the sound of her voice.

"Your bed?" he asked as both of them got out of the bed. "I don't know what's going on but..."

"What is all the screaming about?" a tall man asked as he rushed into the room. Looking up, Xander was about to laugh as he saw how Giles like the man's clothes were. But the look in the man's eyes were stern, almost like his father's and that unnerved him a little.

"Um sorry buddy." Xander apologized as he took a step back. "Me and Cordy never woke up in bed together before and her bad morning breath scared me a little."

"Hey!" Cordelia shouted defensively as she slapped him on the back of the head.

"Do you mind telling us where we are?" Xander asked as he rubbed at the back of his head and looked about the small room. He saw trinkets and items that he knew belonged in museums.

"Forgive me for my rudeness, I am Daniel of the Kalderash people." the man said with a slight bow. "And I brought you into my home, last night after your...accident."

Xander was about to comment on the man's last name, because it seemed familiar to him, but the word accident seemed to spark last night's memory into his mind.

* * *

"Aww, man your car is totally trashed." Cordelia said as she touched what was left of the cars hood as all three of them walked outside. The thing was totally wrapped around the tree and it didn't look as if it was fixable.

"It looks like this trip is officially over. Damnit!" Xander yelled in outrage as he kicked a wheel on the passengers side. He had been planning this trip since forever, but now...

"Look on the bright side." Cordelia started as she touched him on the shoulder. "At least we're not too far from Sunnydale."

"Yeah, but still...listen mister can we use your telephone?" Xander asked Daniel. "It looks like I have to call a tow truck, so we can get towed back to Sunny D."

As he said that Daniel just looked at him blankly, as if Xander had lost his mind. Noticing that look, because Giles and the others had given it to him a thousand times, Xander then knew that something was wrong. Taking another look around at the trees and the houses he could make out in the distance, he immediately knew that he wasn't in California. Granted he had never been to every part of the California area, but none the less judging from what the man was wearing, the way he spoke, and the area itself all seemed foreign to him.

Looking back at Cordy, who was looking at him in annoyance, he was about to joke that he didn't think they were in Kansas anymore but he decided to act a little more serious for the moment. Looking back at Daniel he decided to ask the question.

"Where are we?"

* * *

Xander sat in Daniel's living room, holding onto Cordy who was lying her head on his shoulder softly sobbing. Daniel had just broken it to them that they were now in Borsa Romania in the year 1898 and she took it the hardest. They in turn told him that they were from the future and he acted as if it didn't matter.

'And why should it had of mattered to him?' Xander asked himself. 'He wasn't the one taken out of his time.'

"Hey Cor it's gonna be alright." he whispered to her as her tears started to subside. "I'll figure out a way to get us out of this."

"You!" Cordy snapped as she looked up at him. "This is all your fault in the first place."

"Me?" he asked increduously. "What did I do?"

"Icky wierd things always happen to you and your loser friends. I should have known not to come with you."

"You can't possibly blame all of this on me."

"Watch me."

"I hate to disturb you both." Daniel said as he walked into the room dressed all in black and carrying a cup and a saucer. He had asked them both if they were a couple and they said no, but as he stood at the living room entrance door watching them, he could tell that the two were in love. "But here is your tea." he said handing it to Cordelia.

"Thank you."

"You're quite welcome my dear." he replied as he sat down in a chair across from them. "I want the both of you to accompany me to a ceremony later on tonight. I'm going to talk to the elders of our clan and see if they can get you back home."

"What kind of ceremony is it?" Xander asked.

"It's a...it's a burial ceremony." the older man said uncomfortably. "For my mama."

"I'm sorry to hear about that." Xander told him sympathetically. "I've lost a few friends along the way, so I kinda know how you feel." he said thinking about Jesse, Miss Calendar, and Kendra.

"It's alright." Daniel said waving off what he was saying. "She was getting old and her health was poor. And believe me she's in a far better place then this." he said looking up at the heavens, before standing to his feet. "Now come along, we have a ceremony to get too and I also want you to meet my daughter."

"Alright then." Xander said as he and Cordelia stood to their feet. "We'll go to what's left of my car to get out our clothes to find something a little better to wear." he said as he looked down at his gaudy hawaiin shirt and Cordelia's daisy duke shorts. "Somehow I don't think the clothes we have on are appropriate for a funeral."

"I see." Daniel said as he eyed his clothes with distaste. "When you come back in, I'll show you where to change your...clothing."

As Daniel watched the two walk out of the house, he silently wondered why having them here was a big mistake.

In another part of Romania

Sametime

A beautiful noble woman with long curly blonde hair stared into a fire she had just made lost in thought. Even though she no longer needed the warmth of the fire, just staring into it made her think of the passion she had shared with the man she had so hatefully turned away only a few days ago.

'Angelus.'

"Mommy." a woman's voice called out from behind her.

"Oh, Dru you startled me." Darla said as she instinctively placed her hand over her unbeating heart.

"Mommy, where is daddy?" the insane vampiress asked. "I had horrible visions about him and I saw bad people taking him away from us."

"They were bad people indeed." Darla said thinking. "And Drusilla, I already told you that 'daddy' is gone." Darla really hated it when Drusilla referred to her as her mother, but to get her to do as she said was worth it.

"Is daddy now an Angel?" Dru asked sadly as she pulled Darla into a hug.

"He's not dead and certainly no angel." Darla replied not getting her true meaning. Suddenly the front door opened, exposing streams of light into the room, as a man half on fire and smoking ran in with a blanket covering over his upper body.

"Fire!" he yelled in a british accent as he tossed the blanket to the floor and began stamping on it.

"William stop that foolishness!" Darla yelled at him. "Now did you find where the gypsy tribe is or not?"

"First of all luv, the names Spike." he replied putting on his cocky front. "And secondly yeah, I found your precious little tribe. I had to kill a few blokes and a half demon to get the information but I got it."

"How far away is this place?" she asked as she walked up to him.

"If we leave tonight, we should be there in about a day and a half."

"Ohhh..." Drusilla suddenly wailed and just like that Spike was at her side.

"What is it luv?" he asked as he got her to sit down in a nearby chair. "Is my pet having a vision?"

"Is it about, Angelus?" Darla asked.

"No!" Drusilla almost yelled out as she began to wiggle her hands frightfully. "My kitten and his queen are 'ere. They're going to change things. Change things to make us pay."

"Um...yeah." Darla started with a roll of her eyes. 'What the hell does a cat have to do with anything?' "We're going to leave tonight and when we get there, if we don't get what I want we kill everything."

"You're the boss." Spike said with a shrug. A good old fashioned massacre never hurt anyone. "Now come on Dru, let's get some sleep." he said dragging her by the arm.

"No, mommy...mommy!" she yelled out as she reached out for Darla to take her hand. She had to warn her of the things she saw.

"Just go to sleep, Drusilla." Darla said calmly and in a motherly tone. "Children." she said under her breath as Drusilla got out of sight. Feeling fatigued herself, she walked towards her room in the inn, thinking all the way about the things she was going to do to the gypsies if they didn't undo their curse.

A/N the last scene with Dru, Spike, and Darla takes place a few days after Angelus was changed into Angel.


	3. Chapter 2 Legacy pt2

A/N I really appreciate all the reviews you guys are sending me. Keep it up and I'll keep up with this fic.

Chapter 2

Legacy pt. 2

Xander walked out of Daniel's house wearing black jeans, a black t-shirt, and a jacket. He was glad that he had at least packed some dark clothing for his trip. Seeing Daniel pull up in front of the house with a horse and carriage he was about to walk towards it until Cordelia roughly pushed him out of the way.

As she sashayed past him, he saw that she was wearing a form fitting, short red dress. Feeling his gaze roaming her body, Cordy turned around and growled at him.

"It was the only dress I brought with me that was clean." and with that she turned around and with a little help from Daniel got on the carriage.

"You really hate me don't you?" Xander asked sarcastically as he looked up to the heavens. With a sigh, he slowly walked over to the carriage and got in.

* * *

"We cannot help you." the father of the Kalderash clan informed Xander and Cordy as they stood before him. They were inside of a large tented area, standing before a table with an old man, probably in his late seventies with withering features. And at his side sat five more elderly men and a woman from the clan.

"But why?" Cordelia asked. "Daniel told us that you were the most powerful..."

"You do not understand my child." another member of the clan stopped her. "It is not because we lack the power to send you home but rather that someone has sealed your existance in this time."

"What?"

"He's saying that someone wanted us here." Xander explained to her. "And I'm guessing that we can't leave until we do whatever it is that we have to do?"

"That is correct?" the father spoke again.

'Damnit.' Xander thought to himself. 'What do we do now?'

"Thank you all for your time." Daniel said as he bowed respectively before the clan of elders. "Come with me children." he said as he started to lead them out of the room. That was until the elderly woman grabbed Cordelia's arm and started to speak in romanian tongue.

Freaking out, Cordelia frantically looked towards the others for help.

"Nadia let her go." the father said calmly and after saying a few more words the old woman calmed down and sat back down in her seat. "Forgive her my child, she is not well."

"Whatever." Cordy replied as she hurriedly walked out of the tent to join the others.

"She is the one." Nadia informed the other elders. "Matier has already passed on her powers to her."

"I already know." the father informed her as he reclined back in his chair. "I felt her power even as they entered the room."

"Let's just hope that it is enough to stop Balthazar from fully rising." the elder beside the father suddenly spoke up. The others seemed to nod their agreement.

* * *

"What was her childhood trauma?" Cordelia asked the others as they walked out of the tent and towards the carriage. Looking down at her arm, she saw a tiny black bruise where the lady grabbed her. "And what the hell was she talking about?"

"I do not know." Daniel lied. "Now come. The ceremony will start soon."

"How are we going to get home now?" she asked Xander as he helped her up on the carriage.

"I've been thinking about it." Xander replied as he sat down beside her. "And I think I've come up with a plan to get out of here."

"Do you care to share what it is loser?"

"The Watcher's Council." he said, ignoring her comment.

"What about them?" she asked as Daniel started to ride them along a path.

"Think about it Cordy, the Council is probably the most powerful force in this time. If we can get to England they can probably get us home."

"What makes you think they'll help us?"

"Maybe if we tell them about what's going on and that we helped the slayer in our time then they'll help."

"That's a big maybe, Xander."

"Yeah, but what else can we do?" he asked. "I don't know about you but I want to go back home."

"And you think, I don't?" she asked, getting heated.

"Let's not argue about this okay. Let's just go to this funeral and we'll make a plan on how to get out of here."

As the horse driven carriage entered an isolated area, Xander and the others could already hear the sounds of chanting and people talking mournfully of the deceased. Getting out of the carriage, Xander watched as a white blur ran into Daniel.

"Watch your manners child." Daniel whispered into his daughters ear as he pulled away from her vise like grip. "Alexander, Cordelia this is my beautiful daughter Jenice."

As he turned the girl around, both teens gasped as they took in the sight of the young woman before them. She was wearing an all white ceremonial robe and was almost the spitting image of their fallen computer teacher.

"Miss Calendar." Xander said under his breath as he reached out and caressed her cheek.

"That's the second time you've called me that." Jenice replied as she recoiled away from his touch. Under normal circumstances she wouldv'e enjoyed his embrace, because he was a handsome man, but there was just something about his saddened gaze that unnerved her. "My name is Jenice and I don't know who this...Miss Calendar is."

"I'm sorry." Xander apologized as he dropped his hand to his side. "You just look exactly like a friend I lost about a year or so ago."

"Hey, Xander come quick!" Cordy yelled over the steady chanting of the young gypsy women.

Walking over to see what Cordelia was looking at, Xander saw an old lady on a table dressed in white and lying on an intricately patterned quilt with candles burning around the perimeter. Members of the clan were laying rose petals on her, as Xander squinted though the candlelight to see her face.

"It's the same lady we saw right before we had our accident."

"But that's impossible." Xander said as he finally got a good look at the old woman's face. And sure enough it was the old woman, they saw standing in the middle of the road. "I can't believe this."

"You don't think that she was responsible for us being here do you?"

"I...I just don't know." he replied. "I mean who was this lady?"

"She was my grandmother." Jenice started as she walked up behind them. "And she was the most powerful gypsy in our tribe."

"Enough of that kind of talk." Daniel said as he walked up to the group, handing Jenice a torch as he did so. "It is time to end this ceremony."

"What are you doing?" Cordelia asked worriedly. "Aren't you going to bury her?"

"No. This is what she wanted. According to our old ways family members must burn her body in order to free her soul from it's shell."

After Daniel explained that to her for the first time, Cordy saw that there was hundreds of little twigs, leaves, and wood under the table Matier layed on. Taking a step back, she watched as Daniel started to light the logs up under it.

* * *

A figure lurked in the shadows, not seen by anyone, overlooking the funeral ceremony from the woods with a smile. As the little light that the moon decided to cast upon him, it was seen to be a man with deathly pale skin, and a bald head, wearing a ragged black robe.

"So Matier, you are finally dead." Balthazar said to himself as he slowly stalked behind a tree and peeked out at where she was laying. "And you thought that you could pass on your power without me knowing?" he said as he chanced a glance at Cordelia. "Simple woman. In time I will have all that I need."

As he began to fade back into the shadows, he snapped his fingers and a creul smile appeared on his face.

* * *

"Goodbye, Mama." Daniel said down sadly to his mother as he was about to lay his torch next to her body. Suddenly her eyes popped open and she sat up on the table. As he looked at her he saw that her eyes had turned pitch black "Mama?" he asked startled as he took a step back.

Turning her gaze upon him, she backhanded the torch out of his hand and jumped off the table and on top of him with a banshee's scream.

"Oh fuck!" Xander shouted out as he jumped back. Turning to try to find something to knock her off of his new friend the earth shook and ruptured beneath him. Thrown off his feet, he looked up to see Cordelia standing over him.

"What's going on?" she asked as she helped him stand to his feet.

Before he could answer her, a hand broke through the earth in between them and they could already smell the foul stench of decayed flesh.

"What the hell is that?" Cordy asked as she walked behind him.

"A zombie."

Startled everyone started to scream as more zombies dug themselves up out of their graves and started to attack them. Seeing one shambling towards Jenice, Xander ran over and roughly pushed it out of the way.

"Cordy take her to the carriage!" he yelled as he gently pushed Jenice into Cordelia's arms.

"But what about you?" she asked as she looked at him confused.

"I'll be right behind you. Just go." holding eye contact with her for another few seconds, he watched as she started to run off, still holding onto Jenice's hand. Turning himself, he ran smack dab into a musky body.

'Why do I always have to play the hero?' Looking at the thing up and down, he saw that it was over seven feet tall wearing a dark overcoat and a dirty fedora styled hat. Chancing a glance at it's face, or what was left of it, he saw maggots and dried flakes of skin freely blowing off of him.

As it opened up it's mouth and let out a soft moan, something inside of Xander cackled with laughter. Putting a grin on his face, Xander waited until it reached out at him with skeletal hands, before grabbing it's arm and using his new found strength to snap it's arm at the elbow.

As the zombie shambled back, it's overcoat billowed open and Xander saw a belt holster that held two twin silver revolvers on it's waist. Snacthing them out of their home, he cocked both hammers back, aimed it at the zombies head and without dramatic fanfare, blew it's head off. Before it had time to even fall to the ground, Xander was on it and snacthed off it's holster.

After putting it around his own waist, he was about to go and help the others until a voice whispered one word into his head.

"Souvenir."

Looking back down to the ground, where the demon lay twitching, he scooped up the fedora hat, put it on his head and grinned a wolfish grin. Twirling his revolvers in his hands, he scanned the night and looked for those that needed his help.

* * *

"Alright come on and get up there." Cordy instructed as she helped Jenice get onto the carriage. Suddenly she heard the loud retorts of a gun firing. Turning she saw Xander shooting away at a group of zombies. That in itself didn't shock her but rather it was the look on his face that unnerved her. It looked like he was enjoying himself.

And as she thought that, another thought popped into her head. She had seen that look on Xander's face before. It was a couple of years ago when he was possessed by the...

"Hyena." she softly whispered to herself.

Seeing that he killed all of the zombies, he ran over and shot the zombie that was on top of Daniel. He then turned the gun on the older man and started laughing. Looking around herself for a possible weapon, Cordy saw a large stick a couple of yards away from her. Making sure Jenice stayed in place she ran over to where the two men were.

* * *

"No..." Daniel barely was able to wheeze out as Matier wrapped her cold dead hands around his neck. She was slowly choking the life out of him and as her job was nearly complete, she suddenly sensed something standing over her.

Looking up, she saw a man with a revolver pointed at her head. Even though she was dead and her brain was now mush, she still sensed the danger of the thing in front of her and let out a low hiss.

"Be seeing you." was all Xander said as he squeezed the trigger. The bullet tore through her skull, shattering it like an egg and sending grey brain matter everywhere. Losing her hold on life once again, she slumped over and died again right next to her son.

"Thank...thank you." Daniel said as he sat up, his lungs burning from lack of air. Before he could fully catch his breath, Xander put his foot on the man's chest and forcefully pushed him back down to the ground.

"Not so fast." Xander said as he sniffed the air, as if smelling a stench that only he could smell. "I smell lies and betrayal."

"What...what are you talking about?" Daniel asked, frighted for his life. "What lies?"

"Wrong answer." the hyena cackled with a smile, that showed all of his teeth, as he cocked the hammer on the gun back and aimed it at his head. Before he could pull the trigger, his world exploded in pain as something hit him on the back of the head.

As he fell down to his knees, it was revealed to be Cordelia behind him holding up a huge stick in her hands.

"I hate hyena's." she said aloud as she smacked him across the head again knocking him unconcious and face first onto the muddy ground.

"You don't think, I hurt him too bad do you?" Cordelia asked as she poked Xander with her stick.

"That isn't the point." Daniel replied as he stood to his feet. "Why did he attack me?"

"How am I supposed to know?" she asked as she hunched her shoulders together. "But what I do want to know is what he meant by lies and betrayal?"

"When he awakens, I will tell you all that I know." he said with a grim sigh as he looked down at Xander. "I'll tell the both of you why you are truly here."

Giving Daniel a suspicious look, as he picked up Xander, she wondered to herself how and why she always seemed to get into this kind of trouble.

A/N Hopefully I'll have the next chapter up soon. And a few things will be explained about Balthazar and hopefully Dru, Darla, and Spike will make an appearance in the next chapter. If you want a pic of Balthazar send me an email requesting it.


	4. Chapter 3 Truth, Lies, and Old Faces

A/N This story won't involve Kendra or a twin of her's. It also won't involve any little girl or anything like that, that Xander or Cordy have to raise. However they will have their own team put together by the end of this story. Even though Van Helsing stayed mostly alone I'm going to make accommodation's for the Xand-man in this story. Call me a sap but I really like the passing of the torch ending and that's why I usually add a little kid to the group and later have them take over where Xander left off. That's not going to be the case in this story, as it doesn't fit.

The reason why most of my stories involve Kendra are because, there were little to none of them before I started to write fanfic. Plus I like to put kendra and xander together. And the biggest reason that I pair those two off together is because I hate Faith and Xander ships, I didn't like Anya much, and until I wrote Xander Begins I really didn't even like the thought of Buffy and Xander being together (by the way it was originally meant for Xander and Willow to be together in that xander begins fic.) So that only leaves Willow, Kendra, Cordelia, and Tara so I let the bases of the fic guide me to who should be paired up with him and this one seemed to be just so Cordelia and Xanderish.

This formula usually always works for me so I follow it. As for Cordelia hitting Xander, it just seemed like a Cordelia thing to do.

And speaking of Cordelia, her powers will show themselves a little later in the fic. And she will not have the power of a Seer. And BG I sent you an email with the answer to your question.

Chapter 3

Truth, Lies, and Old Faces

'What the hell hit me?' was Xander's first coherant thought as he rolled over in bed. Then finally some vague memories of last night seemed to hit him. Getting up out of bed he looked over to the small dresser in the room and saw an old dusty hat sitting on it.

"So it wasn't a dream." he whispered to himself as he tried the hat on and smiled. Thinking about it's previous owner made him throw the hat down and take an involuntary step back.

Clearing his mind of such thoughts, his ears perked up as he heard some voices. What was odd about it however was the fact that they were whispering and that they seemed to be coming from a long distance. To him it seemed as though his ears were tuning in and out like a person adjusting the volume on a radio.

Picking up the aroma of food he walked over to his gym bag, that was at the foot of the bed and put on a clean shirt and some socks. With a yawn he walked downstairs to the kitchen area and saw Cordelia and Daniel sitting down at the small kitchen table eating what looked to be stew.

"Ah, you're awake." Daniel said as he stood to his feet and walked over to the fire place.

"Yeah and I feel like a truck hit me." Xander replied as he sat down at the table and ran his hand through his hair. "Now what happened?" as he asked that question Cordelia could only look at him and smile sheepishly.

"We will discuss that later." Daniel said as he jabbed the logs for the roaring fire in the fireplace. As all eyes turned to him, he let out a sigh and began his story. "This all happened hundreds of years ago in our native land. It was during a civil war, long forgotton by time that we were being defeated by a rival clan. Their leader, Bagdon, was using a magical talisman that he wore around his neck to kill most of our people. Over time he became cocky and thought himself invincible, until a member of our tribe fought and yanked his talisman off of his neck during a bloody battle. Immediately losing his power, Bagdon was beheaded but we still had to defeat the rest of his army."

"And let me guess, the guy that took Bagdon's talisman put it on and wiped out the army."

"Yes." Daniel said surprised at Xander's interruption. "His name was Balthazar. After he and his men destroyed the last legions of Bagdon's army, Balthazar's bloodlust didn't stop and he turned on his own men. We later discovered that there was a curse on the talisman and that whoever wore it would go insane with power." as he told that part of the story, he sat down at the table and stared at the others hard.

"He was getting out of control until one day, three young gypsy priestesses banned together and opened up a portal to hell. They managed to snatch the talisman off of Balthazar's neck, and since he was still disoriented they easily managed to push him into the portal. Not before he vowed to return and extract his revenge."

"But what happened to the talisman?" Cordelia asked, engrossed in the story now.

"It was broken apart into three pieces by the priestesses and drained of their power. Over time said power was passed down to generation to generation of our clan."

"And where do we fit into all of this?" Xander asked confused.

"Before the eldest of the original priestess sisters died she had a vision of Balthazar's return." Daniel started as he reached under the table and picked up a decent sized picture frame. "And before she took her last breath she drew this picture." upon turning the picture around both Xander and Cordelia's breath caught as they saw an almost life like portrait of themselves.

"Oh my God." Cordy whispered as she took the picture from him and looked at it. The woman in the portrait looked exactly like her, down to the long brown hair and even her little mole. She was also wearing a beautiful white long sequenced wedding looking dress. And as she looked behind her in the picture, she saw Xander wearing a fedora hat and a brown trench coat, holding up two silver revolvers.

"The portrait is called Xandelia. As legend has it two travelers from the future will come to our time to try to stop Balthazar before he can rise to power."

"But still you haven't explained why us?" Xander asked as he handed the portrait back to Daniel. "Buffy's the Slayer, we're not important."

"Speak for yourself dork." Cordelia scoffed under her breath.

"You have no idea how important you two are." Daniel said as he reached under the table again and handed Xander the revolvers, handle first. "And you'll need these to complete your journey here. I took the liberty of performing a spell on it that will allow those to never run out of bullets."

"I still don't totally understand." he replied taking the guns. "What if we don't want to do this? What if we want to go home?"

"The elders of our clan truly do have the power to send you back to your time." the older man confirmed as he leaned back in his chair and eyed both teens carefully. "It was our plan to try to manipulate the both of you into staying here to..."

"You son of a bitch!" Cordelia screamed as she stood to her feet and waggled her finger at Daniel. "You could of sent us home the whole time..."

"Could you give us a minute to talk alone?" Xander asked, stopping Cordy in mid tirade, as he pulled on her arm to make her sit down.

"Yes, of course." Daniel agreed as he quickly walked out of the room. Putting his head in his hands Xander let out a heavy sigh, before looking over at Cordelia who was seething in her chair.

"So what do you think?" Xander asked her calmly, only for her to shoot daggers at him.

"What the hell do you mean, what do I think? Let's get the hell out of here!"

"But what about the things he was..."

"Xander he's lied to us from the beginning. What makes you think he's not lying about this Baltha guy?"

"But what if he's not Cordy?" he asked as he sat up straight and looked at her seriously. "What if me and you were meant to save the world?"

"Me and you?" Cordelia asked as she started to chuckle bitterly, as if he were insane. "Xander me and you can barely kill one vampire. What makes you think we can take down a big bad by ourselves? And besides, I want to go home."

And for the first time Xander truly looked at Cordelia. For a second Queen C, the bitch of Sunnydale, was gone and here sat the true Cordelia. He had seen her scared before when they were dating and on patrol with Buffy, but she would always make some comment to try to cover it up. But now he saw how terrified she was and honestly that's how he felt himself.

But what he couldn't find a way to tell her, that he felt different about this. He felt a foreign and yet somehow familiar power surging through his body telling him that he was a hero. He really couldn't explain it but he knew the voices in his head to be telling him the truth and that he had to do this mission. Looking up at Cordelia he saw a few tears in the corner of her eye and not knowing why he slowly stroked them away with his thumb.

She looked simply beautiful. He had always found her attractive, but at that moment she looked almost heavenly, even down to the strange white glow that seemed to surround her body.

"Why are you touching me freak?" she asked as she jerked his arm away.

"Sorry." he ammended as he put his hand down to his side. "Cordy listen, I don't know what's going on here but I want to find out. They brought us here for a reason and it seems to easy for them to just send us back without doing something."

"But..."

"I know you're scared and you want to go home but believe me I feel the same way." he said as he took her hand in his. And this time she didn't stray away from his touch, she only squeezed his hand tighter. "I know this is a big 'what if' but what if we were meant to come back to this time and stop this guy? If we try to go home now, we might be going back to a world and time that doesn't exist anymore. I think we should stay for atleast a week and if nothing happens then we'll go home."

"Alright." she said after a moment of thinking.

"Good, now let's go tell Daniel what we decided. And one more thing, what hit me over the head last night?" before she could answer they got up and walked into the other room, and saw Jenice and Daniel arguing heavily about something. Seeing that they walked into the room they stopped talking and Jenice wiped a tear from her eye.

"Is everything okay?" Xander asked as he looked between the two.

"Yes." Daniel lied as he looked over at his daughter. "Now we can go to the elders later today to..."

"Actually we were planning on staying." Xander interrupted him. "Atleast for a little while."

"That's..."

"I still won't forget that you lied to us either Daniel." he interrupted him again. "I know this is your home and all but our only condition to staying here is you being truthful about everything from now on."

"I understand."

"Alright. I hope you have some weapons or something because I doubt that the local shops will accept our money."

"Don't worry about that." Cordelia said with a beaming smile as she took out a roll of romanian leu out of her bra. "I got us covered."

"Whoa, where did you get that?" Xander asked with wide eyes.

* * *

"You sold the tires on my car?" Xander asked in outrage, as all four of them stood outside and looked over it.

"It's not like we were going anywhere." Cordy complained right back, not understanding his attitude. 'God you do a favor for somebody and...'

"Cordy who did you sell those tires to?" Xander asked as he grabbed her by the arms and shook her a little.

" Some guy named Frank...Frank Seiberling. Jeez why?"

"Do you have any idea who that guy was?" Xander asked as he started to laugh to himself.

"Yeah, the guy that gave us an ass load of cash."

"No Cordy, you just sold those tires to the guy that started the Goodyear tire company."

"Wait you mean he's gonna be rich?" she asked only for Xander to nod his head. "Then get the hell out of the way then. Maybe I can still catch up to him before he leaves town."

Taking her by the arm and shaking his head, Xander looked over at Daniel and Jenice who were now looking at the two oddly.

"Ummm, we need to go into town and pick up a few supplies."

"I see. Jenice will gladly take the both of you to the market then." Daniel said as he daughter gave him a look. A look that didn't go unnoticed by Xander.

'I gotta find out what's up with those two.' Xander thought to himself, as he looked back to see Daniel staring at him. Or better yet at his clothing.

"What?" Xander asked.

"Your clothing isn't appropriate for our time. Come, you can change into some of my things and Cordelia can change into some of my daughters."

Letting out a sigh, both Cordelia and Xander walked back into the house. Jenice rolled her eyes at the retreating form of Cordelia, before following up behind them.

Town Market

Hours Later

Xander walked out of the towns hardware store with a huge smile on his face and two bags full of things he was going to use to try to make weapons out of. He was wearing some brown trousers that were a size to big for him with suspenders, a white shirt with a brown duster over it, and finally his fedora.

Breathing in the night air, he looked down the street and saw Jenice and Cordelia walking out of a dress shop, carrying about four bags.

'That's just like Cordy.' he thought to himself. 'No matter what time she's in she always has to keep up with the fashion's.'

She was wearing a dark colored hoop skirt, with matching corset, and a simple white gown. A gown that both showed and boosted lots of her cleavage.

"My face is up here dork!" she yelled, catching his gaze as she shoved her shopping bags on his chest. "Now load these bags in the carriage."

Before Xander could respond a blood curdling scream pierced the air. Dropping the bags, Xander reached under his duster and grabbed both of his revolvers, pulling the hammer back on both of them as he did so.

"You two, stay here." Xander ordered as he took off towards a neighboring building. Giving Jenice a look that said 'you be the one to stay here and load the bags up' she took off towards where Xander had ran. Seeing him duck down an alley, she nearly collided with him at the mouth of it. Looking over his shoulder to see what he had stopped for, her mouth widened at who she saw.

* * *

A homeless looking man walked along a street in Borsa staggering through the night. It looked as though he hadn't had a meal in days and his face was deathly pale. Suddenly a beautiful woman with long raven hair and three men come out of an inn. Just looking at them, the bum knew that they were people of wealth.

"I am hungry" the bum said with his hand out.

"Get away!" the fatter of the three men said in annoyance as he eyed the shabbily dressed man wearily.

"Leave him alone." the woman said with some sympathy. "He is just a beggar."

"Here have a pint on us." the man who spoke said as he threw the beggar a coin.

"I don't want your money!" the bum replied angrily as he picked the money off the ground and threw it back at him.

"How dare you!"

"I want her." the bum said calmly as his face morphed into that of something demonic.

"He is a monster! He is a monster!" the woman yelled out as she took a step back. Her father had always told her of such things, but she had always thought them to be childrens stories. But now...

"I am a monster!" the vampire yelled out for all to hear as the three men dragged him into an alley. "I am a monster!"

Walking closer to the alley she heard the sounds of fighting and she saw one of the men come flying through the air past her. And after a few moments all was quiet. Too quiet and that's what unnerved her. Swallowing nervously and building up her courage she began to inch her way towards the mouth of the alley.

"Rudolph? Are you all right? Rudolph?" suddenly the vampire sprung out of the alley, grabbed her and dragged her into the alley. Using his vampiric strength he pushed her up against a wall and sank his fangs into her neck.

"I can't. Oh god, I can't." he suddenly pulled back, barely feeding off of her at all. Letting go of her she stepped up to the corner of the alley breathing hard and leaning against the wall, holding onto the bite wound on his neck. As he was about to walk out of the alley, he suddenly felt the barrel of a gun held up against his temple.

Looking up he saw a young man, that strangely seemed familiar to him wearing a fedora and looking quite confused. Just by looking into his eyes he knew that the boy was brave, which confused him because the boys gun hand was shaking nervously. Like the mere sight of him scared him. It was then that a beautiful girl, with long brown hair, ran behind the boy and made the situation all the more confusing by saying his name.

"Oh my God! Angel?" Cordelia asked in shock.

A/N Ohhh Angel and finally Dru, Darla, and Spike will make another appearance in the next chapter.


	5. Chapter 4 In The Beginning pt1

A/N I forgot to mention this in the other chapter, but Xander's guns have the power to kill some low level demons. Also thanks Seraphwalker and I'll try to have the next chapter up as soon as possible.

Chapter 4

In The Beginning pt1

"Where the fuck do you think you're going?" Xander asked Angel as he tried to walk around him. Finally his gun hand stopped trembling and he cocked back the hammer on the revolver.

"Out of my way boy." Angel replied as he wiped away the small amount of blood that stained his lip. "There's nothing going on." he said as Xander glanced over his shoulder and saw a dark haired woman leaning on the alley wall, clutching her neck and looking terrified. And upon looking down he saw three men sprawled on the cold alley ground.

'The hell you say.' Xander thought to himself.

"Get out of here!" Xander yelled to the woman, but it seemed that she was to terrified to move. "I'm going to protect you, now go!" finally motivated to move she ran down the opposite end of the alley leaving Xander to concentrate on the vampire. "Be seeing you Deadboy."

"Xander no!" Cordelia screamed as she slapped Xander's hand making him mis-fire and shoot into the ground. Making his move, Angel shouldered past him and ran out of the mouth of the alley. Turning around, Xander shot off four bullets which Angel dodged, with what was left of his vampiric speed.

"Damnit!" Xander yelled in outrage as he looked out of the alley, only to find Angel gone. "Cordelia what the hell were you thinking?" he asked as he turned around and looked at her incredously.

"I was thinking that you were about to kill Angel."

"Look at all those dead bodies." Xander said as he pointed down at the three men. "As much as I hate Angel, this isn't something he would do. That was Angelus."

"No it wasn't. Don't you remember that story Angel told us a long time ago? This is the year that he got..."

"His soul." he finished for her. "But...but still it doesn't matter. I think we should still get rid of him." Xander said after a moment. "Just think about the people he's gonna kill..."

"But what about all the people he saves from now till then?" she interrupted him. "Xander I know you still have this thing about wanting to protect Buffy, but if you kill Angel you're gonna doom a lot of innocents too."

'Damnit.' Xander inwardly cursed to himself. 'I hate it when she's right.' as he thought that the men who Angel had beaten up started to wake up and Cordelia's suspicion was confirmed that the man they had chased off was indeed Angel, because Angelus would have just killed them all. But Xander in that same moment also had a disturbing thought about another event that was supposed to occur that night.

"Cordy go back with Jenice and stay there." Xander ordered as he shoved one of his revolvers in her hand and ran out of the alley.

"What? Xander what's going on?"

"Just get back to her. I'll explain later!" he yelled over his shoulder as he dissappeared down an alley across the street. With a quick roll of her eyes, Cordelia did as she was told.

Five minutes later

"He was 'ere just a moment ago grandmother." Drusilla told Darla as she stopped sniffing the area and looked back at her.

"Yes I know." Darla replied with a frown as she sniffed the area herself and smelled Angelus' scent along with a few others. 'I only smell a small amount of blood. Damnit he didn't feed.' "Now let's go back to the carriage and head towards the gypsy camp. If we hurry we can get there in about thirty minutes."

"But what about Daddy?" Dru asked innocently as she followed up behind Darla.

"We'll just have to come back and find him. Now come on."

"Yes grandmother." Dru replied obediently.

"Will you stop calling me that." Darla said annoyed. This was going to be a long night.

* * *

Xander ran past building after building until finally he stopped in front of a dark and urine smelling alley. He couldn't explain it, but it was like he could actually pick up Angel's scent until finally stopping there. Shaking that thought out of his mind for now, he held up his revolver and slowly walked down the alley.

"I know you're down here Angel." Xander called out as he looked around nervously. "Now just come out so we can talk." for awhile he didn't hear anything until out of the blue a sadistic like laugh filled the air.

"You know guns can't kill vampires?" came Angel's voice from somewhere in the shadows.

"Believe me deadboy..." Xander started as he scanned the darkness. "These things can do alot of damage. Now I don't have alot of time and I know all about your soul, now..."

"And just how do you know about that?" came Angel's whispered voice, from behind him. Turning Angel slapped his weapon out of his hand, sending it with a clatter on the ground, before jerking him off his feet.

'I don't have time for this.' Xander thought to himself as a burning power surged through his body. Kicking off the base of Angel's leg, making the vampire let go in the process, Xander did a flip in mid-air and landed noiselessly back on his feet. 'How the hell did I do that?'

"What are you?" Angel asked as he gave the boy another look. Using his vampiric senses he could pick up that he was human, but there was also something else about him. Something that almost seemed dark.

"Angel I don't have time to explain everything but I need your help to stop Darla. If you don't come with me to stop her then I'll have to make you come the hard way."

Angel froze at the mention of Darla's name, his facade of playing Angelus quickly leaving him. "Just leave me be."

"The hard way it is then!" Xander murmured as he ran at Angel full speed. He struck out with a rainbow kick, that Angel smoothly slid under, even as the vampire dropped down to the ground and did a leg sweep on him, only for Xander to jump over his attack.

As Xander got to his feet, Angel took him by his arm and threw him high into the air, sending him into a large puddle of rain water.

"Fuck!" Xander cursed aloud as he stood up out of the water. The dirty foul smelling liquid soaked through his duster making his clothes underneath cling to him.

"Like I said." Angel started as he straightened his jacket. "Just leave me be."

"I can't." Xander whispered as he threw a few punch combo's, which Angel blocked on his arms and forearms. Going for a sweepkick, Xander dropped down and sent Angel tumbling to the ground.

Standing to his feet, Angel ran at Xander and tried to do a quick spinkick on him. That was until Xander grabbed his leg at the last minute and flipped him onto the ground. Seeing his gun behind Angel, he jumped into a roll, snacthed it off of the ground as the vampire sat up and slapped Angel with the butt of it knocking the vampire unconcious.

"Please don't let me be too late." Xander said to himself as he holstered his gun and reached down to picked up Angel, putting him across his shoulder. Taking off in a sprint, he silently hoped he could get too Daniel and the others in time.

* * *

"Xander what did you do to Angel?" Cordelia asked as she saw him quickly approaching. "And what happened to your clothes?"

"I just knocked him out." Xander replied as he dropped Angel haphazardly in the back of the carriage. Reaching into one of his sacks, he took out some rope and quickly bound his legs and wrists. "Now come on." he said as he hopped in the front and sat down next to Jenice. "We got to get to the gypsy camp and now."

"What's the rush?" she asked as he extended his hand and helped her up, so that she was sitting down next to him.

"Don't you remember what else Angel said happened around the same time he got his soul back?" he asked making her think.

"Jenice get this thing moving and step on it." Cordelia ordered. Jenice didn't know what they were talking about, but she decided to keep quiet and do as she was asked. Taking the reins, she lightly tapped the horse on the back and got the carriage moving.

Gypsy Camp

"So the two children will help us?" an elderly man of the clan asked, as he walked with his hands behind his back.

"Yes, they show great promise and I believe that they can defeat Balthazar." as Daniel said that, they both heard then saw a horse drawn carriage coming over a hill.

"Quickly, get the women and children out of here." the elder said as he recognized the driver of the carriage from one of his visions.

"What's the matter?" Daniel asked as he looked at him confused. The elder wanted to tell him what was to come, but in order for some members of the clan to survive he had to move.

"Don't argue with me boy. Just get as many people together and get them out of the village."

"Yes sir." Daniel replied as he took another look over his shoulder, at the elder and then at the rapidly approaching carriage. Turning back around confused he ran off to gather as many people as he could.

Heart pounding, the elder watched as a tall, skinny, black haired woman stepped off of the carriage. She looked around hungrily and almost child like, until finally she met his gaze. With a smile on her face she was about to walk up to him, until two blondes, one male and the other female stepped in her direction. Standing too far away, the elder couldn't hear what the blonde woman ordered, but the man grabbed the dark haired woman's hand and walked off.

Looking around herself, the blonde looked dead into his eyes and smiled. And even as she walked nearer to him, he could already hear the first of his peoples screams.

* * *

"Daniel, I don't understand." a tall man in his late thirties said as he rubbed on his scruffy beard. "Why would the elder tell us to flee from our home?"

"I...I don't know?" Daniel replied out of breath. He ran all the way to the end of the wooded area and through the small valley, to the last of the houses to wake up a few members of his clan. "But..."

Before he could complete his sentence they both heard a blood curdling scream.

"What was that?" the man asked as he looked over Daniel's shoulder.

"I...I don't know." Daniel answered as he looked back and met his gaze. "Take your family and awaken the one's in those four wagons and get as far away from here as you can." Daniel said as he pointed at the wooden wagons. "I must check on the elder."

"But..."

"No but's, just go!" Daniel ordered as he turned around and ran back the way he came. As he cleared a sprawl of bushes and trees he could already see smoke from a fire, billowing up to the sky along with the dying screams of his people.

As he was about to pass the last tree that seperated him from the camp and the woods, a tall beautiful woman with long black hair stepped in his way.

"Your people are so delicious." Drusilla started as she walked up to him. "They make me feel all warm inside they do."

"Who are you?" Daniel asked, only for Dru to lift him off his feet by his neck.

"Shhh... I hate it when my food speaks to me." she said as her faced morphed into something demonic. Before Daniel could even scream Drusilla bit heavily into his neck.

* * *

"You took him from me. You stole him away." Darla was saying as she stood in front of the elder of the gypsies. "You gave him a soul."

"He must suffer - as all of his victims have suffered." the old man said fearfully as chaos went on around him.

"That is no justice. Whatever pain he caused to your daughter was momentary - over in an instant - or an hour." she said reconsidering. "But what you've done to him will force him to suffer for the rest of eternity! Remove that filthy soul so my boy might return to me."

"Grandmother is daddy an Angel?" Drusilla asked as she walked up to them, licking her fingers.

"Not now." Darla said as she grabbed a hold of the gypsy's neck, making him wince. "In that wagon is your family. Your wife and daughters will die tonight without my protection," she said as she stroked the man's cheek. "but if you'll do as I say, your family can live."

Suddenly Spike, in vamp face, blood on his chin, stepped out of the wagon and burped making Darla look at him incredously.

"What?" Spike asked as Darla closed her eyes, turned back to the gypsy and snapped his neck. Before his body could even fall to the ground, Dru started swaying by the fire, singing to herself.

"Pretty music, pretty, pretty music." and as she started the song Spike came up to her and she pulls him into her dance. "They cry out for mercy. They cry out for mercy."

"Show none." Darla said as she started to walk towards their carriage. Only before she walked away, she heard Drusilla screaming. Turning she caught a glimpse of her falling to the ground.

"Dru...Dru what's the matter?" Spike asked as he immediately came to her side.

"She's having a vision you fool!" Darla yelled out as she pushed Spike out of the way.

"Oi!" he yelled back in protest of being pushed.

"Dru what do you see?" Darla asked as she crouched down before her. "Is it Angelus?"

"No..." Dru trembled as her eyes went wide. "We must leave this place now, or the one who sings about hell will devour us all."

Both Spike and Darla shared a look at her outburst. And the look they gave her seemed to say that she was off her rocker.

"Maybe you should have some more blood too..."

"No!" Drusilla yelled again. "He's coming. We 'ave to leave." Darla was about to argue with her, but she looked around at all the damage, mayhem, and death they had already caused. Really their work here was already done and even though she knew Drusilla to be strange, her visions were never wrong.

"William pick her up and let's leave." Darla said as she practically ran for the carriage.

"But..."

"I said come on." Darla said as she whirled around on him. "We're done here."

Ten Minutes Later

"We'll be at the camp in another minute." Jenice called out as she picked up the speed on the carriage.

"Ewww...what's that smell?" Cordelia asked as a musty smell suddenly lingered in the air. And as she looked up she saw smoke and fire in the distance.

"Yeah, I smell it too." Xander said, resisting the urge to gag. "What the hell is that?"

"Human flesh." came the answer from the back of the carriage.

"Shut up deadboy!" Xander growled, as he rolled his eyes and turned to see that Angel had finally woken up. "We're not talking about your dinner menu here."

"Oh my God!"

As Xander heard Cordelia's cry, he looked back and saw wagons burning and corpses that littered the ground.

"What...what happened...my family." was all Jenice could seem to babble out as she stopped the carriage.

"Just stay here." Xander said as he jumped out of the wagon and shared a quick look with Cordelia. "I'm gonna see what's going on." 'You were too late Xander. That's what's going on!' his mind screamed at him.

Suddenly they saw someone shambling out of the forest. As Xander drew his revolvers, he quickly lowered them as he saw that it was Daniel clutching his neck and looking wild eyed.

"Papa!" Jenice yelled as she ran past Xander and towards her father. Upon hearing his name Daniel looked over towards her with glassy eyes, before falling to his knees, and then flat on his back. Running over to his downed form, Jenice put his bloody head in her lap even as the first of her tears started. "Noo!"

"Jenice." Daniel spoke one final time as he touched his daughters cheek. As his hand started to go limp and before his soul submitted to the ether he looked over his daughters shoulder and saw Xander and Cordelia looking down at him. With a smile on his face, somehow knowing that his daughter would be safe he shuttered and finally died.

"Papa? Papa! No!" Jenice yelled, her voice echoing all through the valley as her body began to wrack with tears. Watching as she put her forehead on his and cried, Xander and Cordelia could do nothing more then shed a few tears themselves. And if the heavens themselves were saddened, the sky opened up and it started to rain.

TBC...

Please Review


	6. Chapter 5 In The Beginning pt2

A/N Thanks for all the great reviews. Sorry it took so long to update but I was trying to find some info on England, Romania, and the training systems. Needless to say, but I didn't come up with much info, but I hope you enjoy this anyway. As a peace offering for waiting so long I'm gonna upload two chapters at once.

To FairyQilan thanks for the review.

To limar Xander using magic is just to scary to me, so no he won't be using it.

To Seraphwalker thanks for the review and I hope you like this chapter and the next. Also did you get that email I sent you?

And to Bobboky and Louvil thanks for the reviews and I hope you guys like what I come up with.

Chapter 5

In The Beginning pt2

Daniel's House

Early Morning

"She finally went to sleep." Cordelia told Xander as she walked out of Jenice's room and into the living room and sat down next to him on the couch.

"How's she doing?" he asked as he kicked off his muddy boots.

"How the hell do you think? She just lost her father dumb ass!" Cordelia screeched as she slapped him on the back of the head. "And where the hell have you been all morning?"

"After I tied Angel up down in the basement, I helped the men of the clan to bury Daniel and the other people who died."

"Oh..." was all Cordy would say as she turned her gaze to the floor. After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, Cordelia looked over at Xander and saw how strained and tired he looked.

She knew that he had tried all night but had failed to find Darla, but there was something else that seemed to be wrong with him. Not wanting to get into that just yet, she asked him the question that was on her mind since last night.

"Xander what are we going to do now?" she asked as he looked up at her. "I mean everybody that could have helped us is dead. I never thought I'd say this but I wish Buffy or Giles were here."

"Wait what did you say?" Xander asked as he perked up a bit.

"I said I wish Buffy or Giles were here. Why?"

"Cordelia you're a genius." he replied as he stood to his feet and started to pace.

"Not that I'm going to argue with that, but why?"

"The Council Cordelia. When you said Giles name, you made me remember about the Council."

"And like I said before even if we could get there and find them, what makes you think that they'll help us?" Cordelia asked as she put her legs up on the couch.

"I...I still haven't figured that out." he replied, standing to his feet and walking over to the fire place to start a fire. "I still think if we tell them about Buffy that..."

"Again with the if's." Cordelia interrupted him. "Xander we need a solid plan. Even if we get to England, how are we gonna find our way around?"

"I could show you." came a tiny voice. Looking up they saw Jenice standing at the door way, her dark hair disheveled and looking tired.

"You should be in bed." Xander said, more then a bit concerned for her.

"I can't go to sleep." Jenice admitted as she walked fully into the room and sat down beside them. "Everytime I close my eyes..."

"Hey it's gonna be okay." he soothed, as she put her legs up on the couch and hugged them close to her body.

"So what did you mean that you could show us around?" Cordelia asked after a moment of uncomfortable silence.

"Me and my...papa went there several times. I have a very good memory and I could be your guide."

"I don't know about this. I don't think you should come with us. I think you'll be safer..."

"With my family?" Jenice asked him bitterly. "Most of my family is dead."

'Don't remind me.' Xander thought silently to himself. He would forever remember that as the biggest mistake of his life. Dropping out of his musings he stopped to listen to what Cordelia was saying.

"I think she's old enough and besides Angel could protect her after we leave."

"What!" Xander all but screamed as he stood to his feet, startling both Jenice and Cordelia with the harshness of his voice. "You gotta be kidding me. There's no way Angel is coming along with us."

"And why not?" Cordelia asked as she stood to her feet and stared him in the eyes. Thinking that Jenice had been through enough and didn't need to hear them arguing, Xander grabbed Cordelia by the arm and led her into the kitchen area.

Alone, she stood to her feet, ready to go back to bed until she heard a noise. Looking around for the source of it, she looked at the basement door.

* * *

"What's the matter with you?" Cordelia asked as she jerked her arm free, from Xander's grasp.

"Me?" Xander asked incredously. "Why are you making plans to bring Angel with us?"

"Why wouldn't we take him?"

"As far as I know he did fine on his own in the original timeline."

"And look how that played out." Cordelia pointed out. "If things had've went a little differently with him, an assload of our friends wouldn't have died and our town wouldn't have almost been destroyed."

"Since when did you become the smart one?" Xander asked, coming down from his judgemental stage.

"And don't you forget it dumbass." she said before thinking about the insult. "Hey!"

"Listen Cordy, I'm sorry about grabbing you and...well getting you into this whole damn mess. All I wanted to do was spend some time with you before you moved to LA." 'And before you were gone out of my life for good.' he thought sadly to himself.

"I...I don't blame you for any of this. Well actually I do, but I forgive you for it."

"Gee thanks for making me feel better." Xander replied, his good mood returning. "Now come on, let's go tell Jenice and Angel what we plan to do."

"Wait." Cordy suddenly said as she grabbed his arm. "Could I...ask you something?"

"Yeah." he said looking at her wierdly. It was almost funny to him to see her so nervous. It was just so not Cordelia like.

"Every since we got here, I've been feeling really wierd."

"You too? I thought it was just me?"

"Does it feel like..."

"Power rushing through your body." Xander finished for her. Before she could reply they both heard a blood curdling scream. Immediately jumping into action, after figuring that it was Jenice, they ran back into the living room only to find her gone.

"Where the hell is she?" Xander asked as they started to look around. And as he did so he saw that the basement door was slightly ajar.

* * *

"The children cried as they watched me devour their parents." Angel told Jenice as he held onto her in a vice like grip, while sitting on the floor with her in his lap. When she had seen him down in the basement crying and alone, she had felt sorry for him and untied his bonds. Only in return for him to grab her and to babble on about his murders. "Now do you want to know what I did to them?"

"No let me go."

"You heard her deadboy." Xander said as he leveled a gun at his head and cocked back the hammer. "Let her go. Now!" looking up at him, Angel let go of Jenice, who ran past Xander and stood behind Cordelia. "You two go upstairs." Xander said, not taking his eyes off of the master vampire.

"Xander, remember don't..."

"I won't Cordy. Now leave me and Angel alone for a minute."

"How do you know who I am?" Angel immediately asked as Cordelia and Jenice walked up the stairs and out of the room.

Xander knew that, that question was coming but somehow it threw him off guard when he heard it. 'Do I lie? Do I tell the truth? Damn what would Marty McFly do at a time like this?'

"We know each other from the future." 'Oh real smooth Xander.' he thought bitterly to himself. 'Break it to him nice and easy.'

It started off small but then turned into a full blown laugh. "Lad I don't know who's crazier. You or my girl Dru."

"Laugh it up." Xander replied as he reached into his back pocket and took out an old withered wallet. Opening it up he handed Angel a picture of him and the entire Scooby gang together.

Angel scanned the picture and couldn't help but touch his face as he saw himself standing with a group of people he had never seen before in his life. And as much as he hated to admit it but his gaze lingered on a tiny blonde in the picture. He couldn't explain it, but he felt as if he was supposed to have known her. Or maybe even loved her...

"Her name is Buffy." Xander started as he sat down beside Angel on the floor and took the picture back.

"Who...who is she to me?" Angel asked slowly.

"That's a long story." Xander said as he took a deep breath. He had to let the hate he felt for him out and concentrate on what was important. "Look Angel, I don't know if a higher power made sure that you recieved a soul or not, but in my time you're important. You matter. I don't know what happened to you in between now and tomorrow but... I'm gonna need your help. Some bad things are coming Angel..."

"I can feel it." Angel interrupted. "Every since I got my soul, I could feel a dark power rising."

As he admitted that truth, the two of them fell into an easy dialogue, that was occasionally broken by Angel rambling here and there. Having told Angel a few things about the future with some hesitancy, Xander stood to his feet, retied Angel's bonds and walked towards the door.

"I'm going to go into town and get you some pigs blood." he said as he thought about something, making him turn back around and draw his revolver. "And one more thing. If you ever touch one of my girls again I'll kill you."

Without another word, he left Angel by himself so he could think about Xander's words. Him a champion? It was almost laughable, but yet a child showed him proof of a time when he was told that he was needed. Sitting back into the darkness, he thought about what was gonna be his next move.

* * *

As Xander walked back upstairs he saw Jenice asking Cordelia rapid fire questions as they sat on the couch. Seeing Xander enter the room, she immediately turned to him and asked a question.

"Who was that man?"

"Yeah Xander, who was that guy?" Cordelia asked pointedly. They couldn't tell her that he was the guy... no the monster that had killed her cousin. And more importantly she couldn't know that if it wasn't for him then her father would probably still be alive.

"He's just a friend of ours." he replied carefully. "And don't worry he won't bother you again."

"Why was he talking about murdering people?" she asked as she looked at them both in turn.

"Oh that crazy crazy Angel." Cordelia laughed it off. "He was just playing with you."

'Angel.' Jenice thought to herself. 'Why does that name sound so familiar?'

"I'm going to go into town to get Angel some...special food." Xander said as he put his boots back on and walked to the door. "I'll be back in a little while."

"Hey what about me?" Cordy asked as she ran up to him. "What do you want me to do?"

"Just have some food cooked for me by the time I get back." he said as he opened the front door and walked out. "And if you get a chance, see if you could wash a few of my clothes." and with that he was gone.

"Can you believe him!" Cordelia yelled in outrage. "I'm not his damn maid."

"What's wrong?" Jenice asked, giving Cordy a look. 'Surely there's nothing wrong with serving a man...was there?'

"What's wrong?" Cordelia asked as if the girl should already know. Then she thought about the time frame where she grew up and when Jenice grew up in, before grabbing the younger girls hand. "Come on, we have a lot to talk about."

Falling in step with the outraged Cordelia, Jenice walked into her room and prepared to have her life changed forever.

* * *

"Stupid Xander." Cordelia mumbled to herself as she walked down into the basement area, carrying a large jar of pigs blood. As soon as Xander arrived back from town, he had eaten the food Jenice prepared for him(Even though she taught Jenice all about girl power and sticking together) and went to his room to go to sleep. Leaving her with the job to feed Angel.

She still couldn't understand how he could treat her like...'It's because you're not contributing anything to the team.' her mind stopped her inner diatribe. "Stupid mind!" she yelled aloud. Even it was starting to betray her.

"I'll show him." she said as she sat the jar on a nearby oak table. "I must've seen Buffy do this a million times." she said as she tried to do a hook kick, only to stumble and nearly fall. Before she could hit the ground however, a pair of cool hands caught her.

"You're doing that wrong." Angel said lowly, startling her. She had forgotten that he was even in the room and the reason why she had come to the basement.

"Um...thanks." Cordelia said nervously as Angel let her go. "What do you mean I did that wrong?"

"Spread your feet out like this." he said as he demonstrated, before walking behind her and grabbing her waist. "Now loosen up and put most of your weight on this foot."

Angel then led her into a series of moves, not knowing that Jenice was standing on the top of the stairs watching them. Xander had told her to stay away from Angel, but there was some kind of an attraction that made her want to be near him. It wasn't a physical attraction, but rather...she really couldn't explain it. Ignoring those thoughts, she looked on as Cordelia did a spin kick that caught Angel across the face.

"Opps...sorry."

"It's okay. I'm a vampire and humans can't hurt me." he replied as he turned his head with a pained expression on his face.

'A vampire?' Jenice thought to herself. 'But...' then another thought came to her and she knew why she had heard the name Angel from. Standing to her feet, she walked back up the stairs and into Xander's room.

Seeing him lying peacefully in his bed, softly snoring, she picked up a pitcher of water that layed on a dresser and poured it on his head.

"Wha.." Xander spluttered as he was nearly drowned into conciousness.

"How long did you think you could keep the truth from me?" Jenice asked, as her chest heaved up and down with anger.

"Jenice what's wrong?" he asked as he sat up and grabbed her around the shoulders.

"Don't touch me!" she yelled as she jerked out of his grasp. "Me and my papa took you in. We fed and clothed you. How could you bring that thing..."

"What are you..." he then stopped as he thought about what she was telling him. "Jenice let me explain..."

"No, I don't want to hear anymore of your lies." she cut him off. "I'm going to tell what's left of my family that..."

Before she could complete her sentence Xander started to violently hyperventilate. Standing up out of bed, he quickly dropped to his knees and held a hand to his heart.

"Xander! Xander what's wrong?" Jenice asked as she immediately went to his side, her previous disgust of him gone.

"I...I..." was all he was able to get out as a long line of drool trailed out of his mouth and onto the floor. In actuality he felt as if he was gonna die. His chest was on fire and it felt as if his body was about to explode.

Reaching into his wallet, he wanted to see the smiling faces of his friends before he died. But as he looked at the picture, he saw that the faces of himself, Cordelia, and Angel started to dissappear.

'Just like Back to the Future.' he thought to himself as he pitched forward and fell face first to the ground.

"Xander! Xander I'm sorry, I'll still help you. Just please don't die." Jenice begged as she rolled him over to look at his face. She had seen so much death recently and she was sick of it.

As she said that she would still help him, he felt as if a huge weight was lifted off of his chest. Giving a smile of relief, a fresh stab of pain hit him and he fell unconcious.

Hours later

Coming out of the realm of unconciousness, Xander felt something wet being patted on his head. Letting out a groan he opened his eyes and saw Jenice sitting over him in bed, with a wet dish cloth.

"You're awake." Jenice said as she dropped the cloth in a large bowl of water that sat on the dresser.

"Yeah." Xander mumbled as he sat up and rubbed at his aching head. "What happened?"

"I...I don't know. But the same thing happened to Cordelia."

"Oh my God is she..."

"What's up with all the shouting?" Cordelia asked as she sat up and looked over at Xander and Jenice. "Xander, what the hell are you doing in my bed? Again?"

"It's not like I plan these things Cordy." he replied, with a roll of his eyes. "Now what's going on?"

"That's what we would like to know." Angel said as he walked into the room. "I was teaching Cordelia how too..." seeing that Cordelia was giving him a look, Angel changed what he was about to say. "Me and Cordelia were just talking and she fell ill."

"Listen can you two leave us alone for a minute?" Xander asked as he stood up out of the bed.

"Yes, of course." Jenice said as she set out a glare towards Angel as they both walked out of the room.

"Cordelia have you ever seen that movie Back to the future?" Xander immediately asked as he sat back down on the bed.

"Do I have geek written on my forehead or something?" Cordelia asked, giving him a look. "Now what does that have to do with anything?"

"Just like in that movie something wierd happened with this picture of us." he said as he took said picture off of the dresser beside him. "Jenice found out about Angel and she confronted me about him. Things got a little heated and she said that she wasn't going to help us and that she was going to get her clan to kill Angel."

"Then what happened?"

"I literally felt like I was gonna die. And as cheesy as this sounds the last thing I wanted to see was my friends, but when I looked at this picture our images and Angel's started to fade away."

"What do you think that means?" Cordelia asked, trying to follow along what he was saying. "I get Angel not being in the picture, but what about us?"

"Well in the movie the same thing happened to a character called Marty McFly. I can't remember everything, but Marty went back into the past and accidently stopped his parents from meeting and the same thing started to happen to him."

"So...like what he stopped existing or something?" she asked.

"Something like that, but my question is do you have someone in your family that was from Romania? Maybe Jenice could be one of your great grandmothers and something happened too her..."

"I can track my family back to the Mayflower Xander." Cordelia interrupted him. "And none of them came from Romania."

"Then it had to be because something happened to Angel in this time that stopped us from either being born or dying sometime in the future. Things are happening a little differently in this time now and anything could happen to effect the future."

"I never thought Angel was that important." Cordelia commented as she leaned her back on the head board of the bed.

"I was thinking the same thing, because it was wierd that when Jenice calmed down and said that she would help us the pain went away and I felt fine." he said letting out a heavy sigh. "When I was asleep I had some time to think and the best thing for us to do now is..."

"There you go again." Cordelia said as she crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head. "You're always making all the decisions."

"You didn't have a problem with it before." he countered.

"Well I do now and I'm tired of it. And for what you said to me earlier...you're making me feel like your slave or something."

'What I said earlier.' he thought to himself. It took him awhile, but a memory finally stuck out and he knew exactly what she was talking about. "Cordy I didn't mean anything by that and I'm sorry. I was just exuasted beyond belief and I didn't know what I was saying."

"Well it sure sounded like you knew what you were saying." she said, glaring at him.

"Like I said, I'm sorry." he said as he took her hand in his. "Now let's figure out a way to get out of here."

"But what about that Balthazar guy?" Cordelia asked as she leaned up against his shoulder.

"I'm starting to think that maybe Daniel was wrong about this guy being around. I mean he hasn't even shown his face yet."

A Dark Cavern

The sound of metal hitting rock, sounded off in a dark cave as a hooded figure paced back and forth. The flames from the torches, hanging nearby casted eerie shadows along the dark room. Having exerted his powers and having thought about his situation further, the robed figure stopped and looked back to the figure that banged on the stone.

"Dasa the chosen two have finally arrived." the robed figure rasped.

"What would you have me to do, Lord Balthazar?" the figure asked as it got down on one knee. As it did so, it stepped into the light revealing itself to be a hulking demon with the body of a man and the head and feet of a bull. He was also wearing light body armour, with a large hoop ring going through his nose.

"The male holds little importance to me so do with him as you see fit." Balthazar said as he leaned up against a wall.

"And the girl?" Dasa asked.

"Do not harm her. I'll deal with her myself."

"As you wish master." Dasa said standing to his feet and walking towards the entrance of the cave.

"Dasa."

"Yes my lord?" the demon asked as he turned back around.

"Give yourself time to get to your full power before engaging the male and..." before he could say anything more Balthazar started to violently shake.

"My lord!" Dasa growled as he tried to run to his master, only for Balthazar to hold his hand up.

"Just go. And kill anyone that get's in your way."

"Yes my lord." Dasa replied reluctantly as he walked out of the room. Soon the human known as Xander would feel more pain then his master felt.

"Soon my beautiful witch." Balthazar mumbled to himself as he looked down to his stone white, trembling hands. He had used so much of his power calling upon a few of his warriors that he could barely contain himself in this reality. "Oh so very soon."

* * *

Xander and Cordelia walked down the stairs, in a much happier mood then they had been all week. They had finally gotten some things off of their chests and had come up with a reasonable plan. As they walked into the living room they saw Jenice sitting alone on the couch knitting something.

"Hey Jenice, where's Angel?" Xander asked as he walked fully into the room and looked around.

"I'm here." Angel said startling them as he walked out of a patch of darkness in the room.

'I'm so gonna get a little bell to put around his neck.' Xander thought to himself with a smile. "Good. Firstly I wanted to say that I'm sorry for lying to you Jenice. The truth is...the truth is that in the future Angel is in that Scooby Gang I was telling you about. I asked Cordy not too say anything because I knew how you would react."

"But how could you keep a thing like that around?" Jenice asked as she glared at Angel. "Do you not know what he's capable of?"

"I do." Xander said more to himself, then he did her. "Believe me I do."

"Then why is he around?"

"Because in the future he helped to save a lot of lives." Cordelia spoke up as she sat down beside her. "And believe me if it wasn't for him, me and Xander probably wouldn't be standing here today."

"But he's a monster!" Jenice screamed as she stood to her feet. "He probably doesn't even know how many people he's killed. How many lives he's destroyed."

"Actually I do." Angel said softly as he lowered his gaze to the floor. "Every time I close my eyes, I see the faces of the people I've... I've killed and it burns me inside."

"Good." Jenice mumbled bitterly.

'Man this is gonna be harder than I thought.' Xander mentally said as he sat down on the couch. Letting out a heavy sigh, he explained to Jenice about the soul curse and about his plan to get back to his own time.

A/N I know vamps aren't supposed to be able to take pictures, but that proved to be a myth because they had Angel in photographs several times in the show.

TBC...

Please Review


	7. Chapter 6 That Old Time Religion

Chapter 6

That Old Time Religion

Daniel's House

One Week Later

Cordelia quickly packed the last of her things in a duffle, the others waiting for her outside in the carriage. She would never admit it to anyone, but as a child she was always fascinated with this time era, because of it's romantic feel and beautiful scenary. But to actually be here...

Feeling a small breeze of wind whip past her face, stopped her inner musings. Picking up the scent of a potent perfume she turned around only to see a familiar old woman standing at the door smiling. She had white and graying hair and was wearing an all black dress.

"Um...do you need help with something?" Cordelia asked as she put her duffle across her shoulders. At her question the woman only smiled deeper and walked out of her room. Curious Cordelia followed her.

She made her way down the narrow, carpeted hall to Jenice's room and stopped in the doorway only to scream at what she saw inside. Feeling light headed, Cordelia's eyes went in and out of focus and when they cleared she saw that the blood that covered the wall in the middle of the room spelled words.

Trying her best not to vomit, she concentrated and read the words aloud.

"I'm coming for you Cordelia."

"Oh...oh my God!" Cordelia said as she stared down and saw the mutilated bodies of Jenice and Xander on the floor, with their eyes wide open in horror and their mouths twisted in a scream. A scream that no one would ever hear. And looking even closer she saw a small pile of dust lying close to their bodies.

Before she could move a muscle, a gentle hand touched her on the shoulder and a calm voice spoke in her ear. "It's time too use the gifts I gave you."

"What?" Cordelia asked as she woke up from her dream, breathing heavily. As she let her eyes focus, she saw that she was alone in a luxury passenger car on a train. Taking a minute to take in her situation she remembered that Xander had torn apart and then sold what was left of his car for scrap metal.

From the profits he had made, they got some supplies and had bought tickets on a train headed to England. But for some odd reason when the conductor had seen Angel, they immediately bumped the four of them to first class.

As she was about to look out of the window the door to her car opened and Xander, Jenice, and Angel walked in.

"Hey Cordy, you missed a good meal." Xander said as he sat beside her on the biege couch. Just as Angel came fully into the room with Jenice glaring at him. "Oh and the conducter said that we should be close to England in the next couple of hours."

"Good." she replied with a forced smile as she returned her gaze outside. The sky was black and starless. The wind carried cold drops of rainwater, just as somewhere in the far distance, thunder rumbled.

"Are you okay?" he asked, more then a little worried. Even though he had gotten to know her better in the last couple of weeks, it still amazed him how close and how easily worried he would become of her. Especially after so many years of proclaiming that he hated her.

"I just had a bad dream." she admitted as she turned her head to look at him. "And no I don't want to talk about it." she said beating him to the punch. 'How the hell are you supposed to tell someone that you saw them lying in a pool of their own blood?' she thought to herself. 'And why was Jenice's grandma in it?'

As she tried to collect her thoughts and before Xander could say another word the doors to the car opened once again. Looking up all their mouth's dropped open, except Jenice's, as they saw two blonde's and a brunette walk into the room. Surprisingly it was Angel to say something first.

"Spike!" he growled as he stood to his feet.

"Angelus." Darla whispered as Xander jumped towards his overcoat, whipping it on and taking out his revolvers as he did so.

"Stupid boy." Darla started as she stepped ahead of the others. "Guns can't kill us." With a smile Xander aimed to prove her wrong as he squeezed the trigger.

As the loud blast sounded out, Darla looked down at the fist sized hole in her chest, where her heart should've been, before looking back up at Xander.

"Damn." were her last words as she crumbled into dust. Everyone in the room was silent from shock until a scream in a neighboring car sounded out. Aiming a revolver at Drusilla, Spike used his vampiric speed but was too late, as Xander shot her twice in the chest.

Looking from Xander to Angel pitifully, she let out a little cry before crumbling into ashes.

"Dru!" Spike shouted as tears stung at his eyes. Looking up at the eyes of her killer, he saw that he was now aiming his guns at him. With the will to survive overshadowing the will to stay and fight, Spike used his speed, turned on his heel and fled from the room before Xander could fire again.

Grabbing his fedora, Xander ran out of the door and looked left then right and caught a glimpse of blonde hair turning the corner. Ignoring Cordelia's shouts he ran in pursuit of Spike.

As he turned the corner he saw people mingling through the corridor. Looking past them he saw the Slayer of Slayer's taking a left down an opposing hallway.

"I need everyone to move!" Xander shouted as he saw that he wasn't able to manuvere through the crowd.

"Now see here." a short pudgy man, with a big curly mustache said as he glared at Xander. "This is a public railway. What gives you the right to order us around?" he asked as Xander flashed a revolver at him. "Oh."

The screams repeated themselves, rising over the angry retorts of gunfire. As Xander turned yet another corner and shot at Spike once again blowing off chunks of wall, the screams continued. As they neared the end of the train, Spike tried to jump out of the back door of the moving train and not wanting him to get away Xander jumped on his back. The force of the move pushed both of them out of the back of the door and they fell on the railroad tracks as the train sped away.

"Xander!" Cordelia yelled as she ran to the back of the train and looked out. As he got up off of the tracks, the both of them made eye contact before the train made a turn around a bend.

"What are we going to do now?" Jenice asked as she and Angel walked up behind her.

"I got it. Angel go to the engineer and..." Cordelia stopped talking as she looked back and saw that Angel had a mixture of both fear and shock written across his face. "Angel?"

"Run." he whispered as he took an involuntary step back.

"What's..."

"Just run!" he yelled out as he took off in a mad dash.

They ran through three different cars when suddenly, the train lurched violently sending the group flying backward. By an unseen power the train was brought to a sudden stop -- but the wheels were still turning. Without suffiecient power going to them within a few seconds they finally, shut down.

"What's happening?" Cordelia asked as she picked herself off of the floor.

Before she could get an answer the lights went out, sending everyone into a mass of screams. Then came a low grinding creak, the sound of metal bending, rivets popping. And like the top of a sardine can, the entire side wall of the train car was peeled off, revealing the terrified passengers inside and a cloaked figure on the outside. With a final thrust, the air rippled and Balthazar tossed the car wall to the side. Passengers from the other cars stared wide-eyed out their windows as he then floated into the inner part of the cabin.

"Ahhhh, my beautiful witch." Balthazar said as he stroked her face with a gentle hand. "How nice to finally meet you."

* * *

Lifting his head up off of the tracks, Xander looked towards the train, the last thing he saw being Cordelia looking at him shocked through the open door. As the cries of the people on the train faded away in the distance Xander stood to his feet, trying to get over his shock and dusted his clothes off. 

"Damnit!" he said aloud, watching the train speed away in the distance. 'How am I going to get to England now?' As he turned around, he was lifted off of his feet by a powerful punch, before landing back on the ground.

"Me and Dru were supposed to be together forever." Spike started as he angrily circled around Xander. "Our love was to be eternal." he said as he tried to kick him in the ribs, only for Xander to catch his foot.

"Personally, I would've given it a hundred years." Xander quipped as he tossed Spike's leg away. Using his vampire agility, Spike did a flip in mid- air and landed on his feet.

Slipping into his demonic visage Spike was about to run at him, when a giant silver and red sword suddenly embedded itself in the ground between them.

"What the..."

"Fuck." Xander finished as they both looked up and saw a giant of a man, no demon standing in the shadows.

"Are you the one known as Alexander?" it asked in a booming voice as it blew steam out of it's nostrails.

"Who...who want's to know?" Xander squeeked out, swallowing the lump that formed in his throat as he looked up at the seven foot monster.

"Your executioner." Dasa replied with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Looks like it's death all around for you mate." Spike commented as he and the Dasa circled Xander dangerously.

"That's what you think." Xander mumbled as he reached for his guns, only to find them gone.

Seeing that he was distracted, Spike struck first and slammed his fist into Xander's stomach doubling him up. Shrugging off the attack Xander grabbed the his fist and lifted him up and over, slamming him onto the muddy ground. Taking the advantage, Dasa put his head down and violently smashed into Xander like a freight train with his horns. Rocked back by the attack Xander was thrown into the air where he hit then collasped against a tree.

"Shit." Xander said with a wince as blood poured out of his mouth.

Suddenly, Spike stood up and grabbed Xander around the neck from behind.

"Oi mate. Let's 'ave a little fun!" Spike yelled over to the towering demon, enjoying the exhilaration of the fight.

As he held Xander tighter in a head lock Dasa walked over and started punching him in the stomach and face. Xander was taking quite a beating and naturally more blood spewed out of his mouth.

If Dasa or Spike had've being paying better attention they would have seen that Xander's pupils were getting smaller. His brow furrowed like a wolf and a low guttural growl sounded from his lips. Suddenly rage -- primal rage feuled through his body. Feeling new strength throughout his body Xander's feet kicked out, his left foot striking Dasa in the face knocking him backward, while his right foot hooked around Spike's head dragging him forward. With his left hand Xander grabbed Spike by the throat, squeezing the esophagus.

"What the bloody hell?" Spike asked in shock.

Reaching into the pocket of his coat, Xander took out something that looked like brass knuckles, put it around his hands and pressed it against Spike's leg. Suddenly, they both heard a the sound of metal extending causing Spike to howl in pain. Then shook, the sound of metal retracting. Letting go of Spike, they stared down at three punctured holes in his leg. With a growl Xander wheeled around, kicked him to the ground, and punched him in the face. Releasing the asp on the device he and Angel came up with, Xander stood over Spike raised his fist and extended his claws.

Before Spike knew what was going on, Xander punched him in the chest with the clawed weapon, sending up rivets of blood. Before pushing the blades deeper in his chest, Spike looked up at Xander with hatred in his eyes before exploding into dust.

Breathing a little easier, he was smacked across the side of the head. Going with the motion he came into a roll and looked up to see Dasa standing over him with a sword.

"Time to die." the beast growled as he raised his sword up high.

'Maybe not.' Xander thought to himself as he looked down and saw his guns by his feet. Before Dasa could bring the sword down Xander dropped down, grabbed both of his guns and opened fire on the demons face.

Howling, Dasa clawed madly at his eyes a stream of blood gushing out of one of them. And upon opening up his good eye, he saw that Xander was gone.

Xander ran hard and fast, ducking through trees and the thick growth of bushes around him. His heart nearly burst in his chest, as he chanced a glance over his shoulder.

Coming along a rocky path he stopped, never taking his eyes off the path he had just taken. Hearing a grunt beside himself, he fell to the ground and scrambled back a few feet as he saw some hooved feet. Looking up he relaxed as he saw that it was a beautiful beige wild horse, with blonde hair.

Sensing something powerful coming in his position, he closed his eyes and quickly prayed that the horse wouldn't throw him off when he mounted it. Jumping from a rock and onto the horses back, his prayers were answered as the horse seemed to obey his movements.

"Here goes nothing." Xander mumbled to himself as he lightly kicked the horse on the side making it take off in a run through the forest. Without a rein or bridal, all he could do was hold onto the horses hair. Hopefully he could get to England in time to meet up with the others.

Moments later several deer in the forest; sensed something and froze. Especially a fawn and a doe who sprinted away. The buck merely turned his head, feeling the danger as Dasa, bloody eye and all emerged out from behind some trees breathing heavily.

Taking in the scent of the air, he smelled Xander along with his horse, making Dasa growl low in his throat.

"Do not think that you will escape my wrath, Alexander." Dasa said into the wind. "I WILL GET MY REVENGE!"

* * *

Cordelia shivered to herself as Balthazar ran a cold hand down her cheek. 

"Wi..wi...wi...witch?" Cordelia stuttered as he looked at her almost lovingly. "I'm n..not a witch."

"Come now child. I have little use for games." he replied as he grabbed her neck in a vise like grip, before lifting her off of her feet. "Now it's time to take my power back."

Before he could lift up his hand to suck the power out of her, using his vampiric speed Angel was suddenly beside him and punched him in the face. Being lifted off of his feet, Balthazar fell, with a thud to the floor of the train. Rubbing his jaw, he looked up at Angel and smiled.

"Ahh, Angelus." he started as he stood to his feet. "The scourge of europe himself."

"H..how do you know me?" Angel asked nervously. It was strange to him that it felt like a foreign instinct to try to protect Cordelia. And for a reason he couldn't explain, it felt good to him.

"Who in the underworld hasn't heard of you? But I don't understand why..." he stopped as he took an even better look at Angel and saw darkness surrounding a small ball of light. "You have a soul."

"Yeah."

"Pity." Balthazar said with little emotion as he lifted up his hand and sent out a red concussive wave throughout the room. Cordelia and Jenice were blown off their feet by the explosive wave, but Angel was lifted off of his feet and hovered in the air. "You were once a demon of the night, but now you're nothing more than a whimpering little boy. I take pleasure in being the one to end your pathetic life."

Coming too, Cordelia sat up off of the floor and watched as Angel screamed from the fire that formed in Balthazar's hands.

'Use the power I gave you.' she suddenly heard a voice say in her head.

"What?" she asked aloud as she looked around to see who had spoken to her.

'Use the power I gave you.' it said again as Cordelia suddenly felt a surge of power. Looking down, she concentrated that power into her hands and stood to her feet.

Sensing an increase of power Balthazar looked up only to be blasted in the face by powerful energy.

'She wasn't supposed to have known about her power yet.' he thought to himself as he turned to leave out of the train. 'And I am not yet powerful enough.'

Gathering what was left of his power, he transformed himself into a black crow before flying out of the opening of the train.

"And stay gone!" Cordelia yelled after him as she looked out into the night. 'I can't believe I did that.'

"So...so you're a witch?" Angel asked surprised as he stood to his feet. He could've sworn that Cordelia was one of those rich girls that always got their way and had more money then they knew what to do with.

"It seems like." she said looking down at her hands completely missing a look that Jenice sent her way.

"And he was the Balthazar that you were talking about?" he asked. "He didn't seem so tough."

'He doesn't seem tough now.' Cordy thought to herself. 'But I could tell that he was holding something back.'

"So what do we do now?" Angel asked her.

"The only thing we can do." she said as she returned her gaze to the night sky. "We wait."

TBC...

Please Review


	8. Chapter 7 What Legends Are Made Of

A/N Thanks eyeofruby, Chaosronin, Seraphwalker, cursedgirl, and Bobboky for your reviews. And I'm sorry about taking so long to update.

Now to answer a few questions. To Eyeofruby, I thought it would be alot easier and alot less time consuming for all of the characters to be able to speak english. It just makes the story flow a little easier to me. And no the Balthazar demon isn't the same one from the show but rather a different one all together.

And to Seraphwalker if you tell me a little about Alucard (how he looks and his attitude), I'll see if I can put him into the story. You are talking about the one from Castlevania right? Dracula's son. Also I have a question for you. I wanted to know if it was alright for me to use you in one of my stories? And I also have a protege' that I'm teaching the writing game too and they like your attitude and they wanted to know if they could make a fanfic with the main character having your screen name (Seraphwalker) and your likeness. If you're interested just email me.

Now on with the story...

Chapter 7

What Legends Are Made Of

The Langham Hotel

"Are you sure this is gonna work?" Cordelia asked as she paced around in a hotel room, with her hands behind her back.

"My Bunica taught this to me." Jenice replied as she hovered her hand over a map of England with four candles burning on either side of it. "I've never had to do a location spell before but I'm sure that it'll..." before she could complete her sentence a bright white light flashed on the map, that indicated Xander.

"Is that him?" Cordelia asked as she pointed at the light.

"Yes."

"Then what's this light thingy that's coming fast in his direction?" she asked as a red light zoomed about on the map.

"I don't know." 'But knowing Xander it's probably something that's gonna get him in trouble.' Jenice thought to herself.

"That place where Xander is, isn't far from here." Angel said as he looked down at the map. "I've been here before and I know where that is." he said as the light from the spell faded.

"Alright, Jenice you stay here and me and Angel are gonna..."

"No. Xander is my friend too." she protested, causing Cordy to smile.

"Alright, come on."

As they ran from the door and out into the hall of the hotel, Jenice bumped into someone almost knocking her down. Angel turned back to look at them for a second, feeling something not right about the man, but decided to catch up with Cordelia instead of investigate.

"Sorry." she apologized as she looked up to see a kindly looking noble man, with a derby hat, a gentleman's cane, and a small leather bag.

"Not a problem my child." the man replied in a deep voice, that went against the way he looked. Glancing up at the man again, Jenice looked deeply into his eyes and saw something in them that didn't look too friendly. Something that made her shiver a little inside. "Just watch where you are going next time."

"Yes sir." she replied nervously as she started to back away. "It won't happen again." she said as ran to catch up with the others.

The old man watched her retreating form until she dissappeared down the hall, his smile fading.

'My God she was beautiful.' he thought to himself as he removed his hat and put it under his arm. 'And I'd wager that her inside's look even more lovely. Maybe it's time for old Jack to come out of retirement.' with that thought he opened the door to his hotel room, with a sick and crooked smile on his face.

* * *

Xander nearly fell off of his horse, that he named Buffy, as he finally came into town and saw the city lights. Stopping Buffy in front of what looked like a bar, he dismounted her and tied her up on a post with some rope he had found when he had first came into the city.

"Stay here girl." he said as he touched her face and turned around, hearing a loud clap of thunder in the distance. 'Damn why is it always raining here?'

As he walked up the steps to the old building, he saw that the name of it was The Slaughtered Lamb. 'Why does that name sound so familiar?' he asked himself as he opened the door to the bar.

The pub was apparently "modernized" sometime in...well Xander couldn't really figure that out. Its traditional Englishness combined with greasy stainless steel, old rotted wood and glass. As he looked around he saw that it was populated by mostly pale dirty young men with longish hair. Several older men were ruddy complexioned and sported large mustaches. Four or five others were watching a chess game, while two other men were in the corner playing darts.

The conversation was loud and there was often laughter as smoke from cigars filled the room. Taking an even closer look Xander noted that there was something unsavory about these people. They had a look of leanness and poverty. They seemed almost inbred and somehow sullen. Finally noticing him, there was dead silence from all of them as they stared in a not so friendly way. Ignoring them he walked fully into the pub and walked towards the bar.

"It's very cold outside. May I come in?" he asked as the hefty looking woman barkeep nodded.

With a nod himself, he walked carefully over to a table and very self-conciously removed his hat, placed it on the table top, and sat down. There was a long, awkward wait, but finally the woman walked over to him.

"You're an american ain't ya?" she asked as she looked at Xander up and down.

"Yeah." he replied confused. "How did you know?"

"Because you don't have an accent lad." an old dirty man said as he placed an even dirtier glass of scotch on Xander's table. Not waiting for an invitation, as if he would ever get one, he sat down. "Bring me and my new friend here another shot of scotch."

"He looks a little to young for that." she said as she jokingly pinched Xander on the cheek making him blush.

"Be gone with you woman and bring back those damn drinks." the old man ordered, causing everyone to look over at them.

As the barkeep turned to prepare the drinks, everyone resumed what they were doing; talking, drinking, playing chess and darts, and Xander breathed a little easier.

"So where did you get that hat and those guns lad?" he immediately asked as he drank the last of his drink.

"Who wants to know?" Xander asked, eyeing the man cautiously as he sat back in his seat.

"I like you lad." he replied with a smile and a hearty chuckle. "My name is Charles Wilks the III."

"Xander Harris the first." Xander joked, his good mood returning after his earlier confrontation. "Now why were you asking about my stuff?"

"Because they belonged to a friend of mine." Charles replied looking into his empty glass. "His name was Van Helsing."

"That's impossible." Xander replied with a smile. "Van Helsing was fake. He was just a character in a story book."

"He was bloody more then that boy!" Charles yelled as he slapped the table, nearly splintering the wood. "He was very real." he said calming down.

"And how do you know that?"

"Because I fought along side him." as the man told him about his experience with demons, Xander in turn told him a little about himself and what happened to him.

"Well good luck to you boy." Charles said after a few minutes of talking. "And you should be honored to carry Van Helsing's weapons and hat. He was a great man and hero, as I see you to be."

"Thank you." Xander said as Charles walked out of the door. Honestly he felt better now, as if he had found a kindred spirit. The old man had even given him a lead on how to find the Council. 'I'm gonna just rest for a few minutes, then I'm gonna go find Cordy.'

Sitting back he listened to the rain as it was loud on the roof and beating on the windows. Bolting up out of his seat, he was startled out of his peace by a distant howl of a beast. He wouldn't kid himself into believing that it was a wolf, because he had sworn that he had heard that howl before.

But what wierded him out even more was that the gathered continued to drink, play chess and darts, as if they had heard nothing at all. As if the howl was an everyday occurance. Suddenly another howl sounded, this one long and loud. It was a very inhuman noise, terrifying, and closer this time.

"You should stay calm." the barmaid said as she finally brought over his drink. "It was just a wolf."

"Lady that wasn't a..." he stopped talking as his ears suddenly picked up something.

Xander barely turned his head before, boom! The window exploded, letting in freezing wind and billowing rain water. As everyone jumped up startled he was hit from behind. The attack was so ferocious that even he was unable to make out the attacker. But whatever it was, he could tell that it was huge and he could hear it snarling and saw flashes of its claws as it slammed him back against the wall.

Still not being able to fully see what it was, they both smashed through the front door. The two combatants rolled madly down the street obscured by the heavy sheets of rain. Finally, as he separated from his attacker, he saw that it was the creature Dasa, before it picked him up and threw him into a deep pond, that neighbored the pub. As he crashed through the water Xander struggled uselessly, already short of breath. Trying to reach the top, water started to fill his lungs and his skin started to go pale. He was drowning.

Above him he heard an angry grunt as Dasa started to hunt for him. It stalked across the edge of the water, searching. Having been under the water to long, Xander's struggle decreased somewhat as his strength waned because of his earlier fight. As he closed his eyes, ready to except death, a clawed hand reached through the water and with a violent yank the icy water gave way to the soaked and half- frozen Xander.

The creature picked him up by his face, cutting deeply into his cheek, and held him up like a rag doll, so the two were face to face.

"Your pain will last longer then that." Dasa said with a growl, as his right eye started to bleed again. Xander, half-drowned, opened his eyes and looked right at Dasa as though he was going to say something.

Instead, a lung full of water came shooting out, splashing the minotaur in the face. With that, Dasa roared, as he hoisted Xander up and threw him, sending him flying nearly ten yards, where he landed head first on the ground. Running on all fours, Dasa skulked over to him, his breathing coming over the rising of the wind. He was nearly upon Xander now and the wind rose further, until he had to shield his eyes from the bitter icy air. As he approached, he saw a fresh cut on Xander's face, making him smile with delight.

"It's time to end this." Dasa said aloud as he stood to his feet. Taking his sword out of his waist sheathe, he was about to bring it down on the fallen Xander until he sensed somthing behind him. Turning, he was blinded by the most brilliant light he had ever seen.

* * *

"We should be coming up towards the pub now." Angel said as the coach they were riding in, sped up a little. "It's just around the..." before he could continue what he was going to say a loud scream penetrated the air.

"Whoa...boy...whoa." the coach driver said to his horse, as he pulled it's reins making it stop.

"What are you doing? We aren't there yet." Cordelia asked as she glared at him.

"After hearing a scream like that, there's no way I'm going that way." the older man said back, making her let out a little huff.

"Come on guys." she said jumping out of the coach.

"What about your fair?" the coach driver asked as they started to run off.

"Keep the change!" Cordelia barked as she threw him a few coins. As they turned the corner, they all stopped in their tracks as they saw a huge beast looming over Xander.

"What the hell is that?" Cordelia asked in awe.

"It...it can't be." Angel voiced as he took a step back. "Those kinds of demons aren't supposed to be real."

Seeing that the minotaur was about to bring his sword on the fallen Xander, Cordelia instinctively ran in front of him and tried to shield him with her hands.

"Lumente!" she shouted out as a large burst of light exploded from her finger tips. With a loud roar of rage, Dasa covered his eyes and fell to the ground, blind. 'What the...' Cordelia thought to herself as she looked down at her hands. 'How did I do...'

"Buffy." Xander said woozily as he pointed over to his horse. Immediately forming a plan, Jenice ran over to the horse, untied it from the post and placed the other end around an old carriage that sat near it.

"Cordelia come on!" Jenice yelled, snapping her out of her musings. Looking around, she saw that Angel was helping Xander to his feet. Seeing that they were running to a carriage, she hiked her dress up slighty so she could move her legs to run.

"Angel get on the horse and hold on to this rope." Jenice ordered as she, Cordelia, and Xander sat secure in the back of the buggy. Catching onto what she was thinking, Angel jumped on the horse, held the rope and used his vampiric strength to pull the carriage with the rope as the horse took off in the direction of the hotel.

Finally coming out of his fit of blindness Dasa looked around with his one good eye and saw Xander and the others fleeing. About to take off in pursuit of them he suddenly heard his master's voice calling him in his mind. With a growl he turned around and ran towards Balthazar's lair.

The Langham Hotel

Later That Night

"So you named your horse after Buffy?" Cordelia asked with a laugh as she placed some bandages on Xander's arms and face. He was freezing wet when he got to the hotel, so Cordelia had made him strip down to his underwear and get in bed. "Oh God, I can't wait to tell her that when we get back home."

"It seemed like a fitting name." Xander said with a wince as Cordelia slapped on the last bandage. 'Especially after she saved my butt.'

"What was that animal thing that was fighting you?" Jenice asked as she sat down on the bed next to him.

"It was a minotaur." Angel spoke up as he paced around the room. "And it had Balthazar's stench all over it."

"Yeah, I almost forgot about that guy." Cordelia told Xander. "He attacked us earlier tonight."

"Are you guys okay?"

"Yeah he wasn't so tough."

"Well how did you guys get away?" he asked. "Did Angel..."

"No I did it. And I did it with magic." she said as she opened the palm of her hand and a small sparkle of power crackled in her hands.

'Oh God.' Xander thought to herself. 'Cordy with magic.' he shuttered at that thought.

"Hey wait." Xander said reaching over to his jacket, that sat haphazardly on a dresser beside him. "When I was at that pub, I met a guy that said he could get me in contact with the Council. You won't believe this." he said as he opened the piece of paper the man had given him.

"What?" Cordelia asked as she took the paper from him and read it. "Theodore Giles?"

As she said the name a knock sounded at the door. Giving each other a look Cordelia, along with Angel walked over and opened the door. When they did they were surprised to see a hefty sized woman along with an elderly man behind her.

"I'm...I'm sorry to disturb you missus." the woman said with a lump in her throat. "But, I was hoping to speak to Xan-Helsing."

"Xan...who?" Cordy asked. "Lady I think you have the wrong place." she said causing the woman and the old man to look at one another.

"But we were told that the descendant of Van Helsing lodged here." the older man said as Xander came to the door, a sheet covering his body.

"What seems to be the problem here."

"Please sir, are you Xan Helsing?" the woman asked, practically in tears.

"Yeah." Xander said figuring that Charles was spreading the word about him. "Yeah, I am."

"Then please sir, help us find our grand-daughter." the old man said taking out a black and white picture of a young teen. "She was taken from us and we fear the worse."

Place Unknown

Sametime

A girl with short dark hair, the same one from the stranger's picture, sat huddled in a corner as a dark figure loomed over her.

"Don't worry my dear." Jack said as he pulled out a surgical knife. "Your pain will be over momentarily."

"Wh...why are you doing this?" she asked, shaking with fear.

"For practice." he answered as he stabbed her through the chest, savouring the look of the life that was quickly slipping out of her. "My skill must be perfect for when I offer up my sacrifice."

Balthazar's Lair

"I throw my...myself at your mercy my lord." Dasa said as he bowed respectively to his master, who was sitting in a thrown like chair.

"Arise Dasa. For I too have failed in killing the witch." Balthazar said as Dasa stood to his feet. "But I have thought of a new way to obtain power."

"And what is that my lord?" Dasa asked as Balthazar ran, lighting fast towards him and punched him through the chest, ripping out his heart.

"By taking demon essences." he said as Dasa began to topple over. As his body hit the ground, a black mist flew out of his body and into Balthazar's. Fully absorbing it, Balthazar shedded his cloak and fell to the ground.

Twitching from the surge of power, Balthazar's normally white skin turned brown and small horns began to grow on the top of his head. Standing up off of the floor, a sadistic grin spread across his face.

"I've been such a fool." he said to himself as he looked down at his hands. "All this time, I've been searching for power and it's been right here at my finger tips."

With a new plan forming in his head, he turned around and walked into the shadows. There were a few demons in the underworld that he really had to see.

A/N Balthazar will come back later in the story and he'll be as powerful as ever. And he's still gunning for Cordelia.

TBC...

Please Review


	9. Chapter 8 From Hell:Waiting in The Wings

A/N This is primarily an Angel and Jenice episode. Nothing mushy or anything but rather something to better help them to get along. It'll probably be the only one like it so don't worry.

Chapter 8

From Hell Redux

a.k.a.

Waiting In The Wings

Two Days Later

Ruby Tyler walked slowly through a darkened, fog filled alley as her last customer of the night left. She had been prostituting for many years, but tonight it seemed unnaturally eerie. Suddenly a cat jumped from behind a nearby trashcan startling her.

"You scared me half to death you did." she said picking up the black cat and smiled as it licked her face. "My aren't you..."

Before she could complete her sentence the cat hissed at something further down the alley, jumped out of her arms and then ran away. Looking towards where the cat was hissing Ruby watched in astonishment as the figure of a man wearing a hat and cloak appeared out of the mist. He had a walking cane, which he tapped on the stones as he approached, and a small leather bag in his other hand.

She watched him as he stepped into the street lamp's glow and saw that his face was ghastly pale, and he had dark eyes that were filled with something she couldn't identify. His appearance was smart and attention was drawn to him by his very white cuffs and rather long, white collar which came down over the front of his long black coat.

"Hello, my dear." he said with a smile that was akin to a sharks. "How about a tumble with old Jack?"

As he said that he whipped off the top of the cane, revealing a razor- sharp stiletto blade hidden inside. He jumped toward her and she recoiled, only to hit the side of the wall. With a look of victory he hopped forward, his knife going through the woman's stomach. As she trembled and slumped against him, Jack let her fall to the ground. As his eyes glowed a demonic red, after he slashed the woman to pieces, he stood to his feet and heard church bells in the distance.

The Langham Hotel

Noon

"So did you find the girl you were looking for?" Cordelia asked as Xander walked into her room with a downcast look on his face. Taking off his hat and his gun holsters, he sat them on the dresser and sat down beside her.

"Yeah... but she was torn to pieces." he said as Jenice entered the room unnoticed, carrying a tray of food. "Me and the local constable found her near a church not far from here. Her face was so mutilated that the only way she could be identified was by a tiny birth mark on her arm."

"Was it a demon attack?"

"I don't think so. According to what I saw and the coroner's report, whoever did this was a skilled doctor." he said with a grimace. "If I didn't know any better, I would say that Jack The Ripper did it."

Suddenly they both heard some glass breaking. Looking up they saw that Jenice had dropped her plate and was looking at them wide eyed with fear.

"What's wrong?" Cordelia asked as she stood to her feet.

"I'm sorry." Jenice said dropping to the floor and picking up the glass shards from the plate.

"You're shaking like a leaf." Xander noted as he got on the floor with her to help. "Now what's wrong?"

"It's Jack the Ripper." she confessed after letting out a breath. "My papa told me about him when I was a little girl and..."

"I never said that he was the one that killed that girl." Xander tried to assure her. "So relax there's nothing to be afraid of."

"Okay." she said breathing a little easier.

"Oh, that reminds me." Cordelia said as she stood up and reached into the dresser. "I asked a worker of this hotel and he gave me directions to where Giles lives. It's actually walking distance from here."

Xander smiled to himself as she said that. It seemed that since they started this trip that she started to grow up a little. The old Cordelia Chase would've demanded that they get a coach to get to Giles but the new Cordy...

"What the hell are you smiling about?" Cordelia asked, interrupting his thoughts. "Aren't you listening to me?"

'Well maybe there's still a little of the old Cordy there.' "Yeah, I was listening." he replied as he put his hat back on. "Let's head down there now. After what I saw today, I think I'll skip lunch."

"How long will you two be gone?" Jenice asked as Cordelia started to put on her shoes.

"Don't worry, we should be back long before Angel gets up." Xander whispered to her. To conserve money they only got two rooms. One Jenice shared with Cordelia and the other shared by Xander and Angel. 'And he said he's been to hell before.' Xander thought bitterly to himself. "He's a vampire remember, he sleeps all throughout the day."

"If you say so." Jenice said twirling the cross necklace he had given her.

"Stay in this room until we get back though." he went on. "It might not be Jack the Ripper but a sicko is still on the loose."

"You'll see we'll be back before you know it." Cordy said putting her hand on Jenice's shoulder. Both of them missed the look of hatred on Jenice's face at her touch so Cordelia continued on. "Come on let's go." putting the guns back in their holsters, Xander and Cordelia then walked out of the room and soon the hotel. Remembering Buffy, they walked to the stabled area of the hotel and got her.

As they stood outside they saw that the streets were full of horse-drawn carriages, Hansom cabs, and carts full of produce pulled by donkeys. Women were in fine dresses with narrow crinolines and bonnets, carrying parasols and reticules, covered from toe to neck bustled along the walkways, and men in three piece suits, each with a hat perched atop his head, strode quickly from one place to the next.

It seemed to be the perfect day. Indeed England was far more beautiful then what they had ever seen in Sunnydale. The architecture, the beautiful scenery, the romance...suddenly Cordelia reached over and gave his hand a gentle squeeze. Looking over at her, he saw something in her eyes that he never saw even when they were dating. Entwining their arms together she rested her head down on on his shoulder as they continued their walk, with Xander leading his horse by the reins.

Some Time Later

Jenice practiced a leg sweep on the floor and quickly stood to her feet. She had watched Angel teach Cordelia these moves and everytime all of them would leave she would practice alone. She had to show the others that she wasn't a baby and that she could take care of herself. And most importantly she had to show up Cordelia.

She had already stolen her grandmothers power, her birth right, and now she was turning into someone that could almost outmatch Angel in fighting.

'Damn her.' Jenice seethed to herself. 'I've been waiting my whole life too..." she stopped her inner diatribe as she tried to do a quick punch combo and sprained a muscle in her back. With a wince she put her hand on the back of her shoulder and tried to twist it around, only for a fresh wave of pain to shoot up her arm.

'I need some ice.' she thought to herself as she walked to the door. As she was about to open the door, she then thought about what Xander had told her about not leaving the hotel room.

"He's not my papa." she said aloud as she opened the door to the adjourning room and saw Angel softly snoring on the cot inside. Closing that door, she opened the one that led out of her room and walked out into the darkened hallway.

Seeing the huge ice box down the hall she walked over to it, picked up a bucket and loaded it with a small shovel. Filling it with ice, she turned around and bumped into a body, that startled her and made her drop the ice on the floor.

"So we meet again?" Jack asked as he smiled at her.

"S..sorry." she apologized nervously as she kneeled down to pick up the metal bucket, wincing with the effort.

"You're hurt." he noticed, with mock concern.

"Just my shoulder." she replied as her hand immediately shot up to it.

"Please allow me to have a look at it?" he asked as she looked at him skeptically. "Don't worry my dear I'm a doctor."

Ignoring the voice that spoke in the back of her mind that told her to run, she dropped her arm and turned around. After a few seconds she felt his strong, yet skilled hands glide across the area where she was hurting.

"Ahh, it doesn't seem to be anything more than a bruise." Jack said as she turned back around to face him. "If you would allow me, I have some medicine in my room that should take care of the pain. Just follow me."

'I'm not a little kid. And he seems nice enough.' she thought to herself, even as a nagging feeling came over her to leave. Seeing him beckoning her into his room she went down the hall and walked inside.

One side of his room was entirely occupied with cases, outwardly resembling wardrobes. When she went in all the way, quite a museum was revealed -- tiers of shelves with glass jars and cases, some round and others square, filled with all sorts of anatomical specimens. The 'doctor' had placed on a table a dozen or more jars containing, body parts of every class of woman. Nearly a half of one of the cases were occupied exclusively with the specimens.

"Oh..oh no..." Jenice said as she took a step back. Before she could complete her turn, Jack took a rag of chloroform and put it over her face. Breathing in the anesthetic she struggled uselessly in his grasp before finally passing out.

"Finally master you will arise." he mumbled to himself as he grabbed his bag and headed out the door with her.

Giles Residence

Sametime

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Cordelia asked as she and Xander finally arrived on horse back at the address that was given them.

For some reason when they had thought of Giles' family, they had immediately thought of a castle or a huge mansion but definately not an old shack of a house in a bad neighborhood. Cordelia was just happy that it was daylight and that Xander was with her, because even a cockroach wouldn't be safe in this part of town.

"I don't know." Xander said as he dismounted the horse, before helping her off. "But let's find out." giving the old door a gentle knock, they were surprised when they saw a teen girl of about fifteen answer the door.

"Yes?" she asked in an american accent, as she looked at both of them suspiciously. And as Xander looked back at her he could tell that she was holding something behind her back.

"Umm.. is a Theodore..."

"Sara who's there?" they heard a very british voice ask, as the door opened even further. They were shocked to see a man almost identical to their Giles, with the only exceptions being thick sideburns and and a full beard. "Yes, may I help you?"

"Giles!" Cordelia shouted at seeing a familiar face, before she latched onto him.

"Good lord." Theodore bellowed as she squeezed him tighter.

"You don't know how good it feels to hear you say that." Xander said happily.

"I hate to seem utterly rude but who are you two?" Theodore asked as Cordelia let him go.

"Come on Giles, it's us." Cordelia said before she remembered what was going on. "Oh right it's that time thingy."

"Listen, my name is Xander and this is my friend Cordelia." Xander properly introduced them. "I know this is gonna sound strange but ummm...we're from the future." he said causing Theodore and Sara to give each other a look.

"Right then, have a nice day." Theodore said with a false smile as he started to close the door.

"Giles come on." Xander said aloud. "I wonder what the Council would say if they knew you were refusing to help us?"

"What pray tell do you know about the Council?" he asked as he opened the door back up and looked at both of the teens suspiciously.

"Only that they work with the Slayer." not saying a word Theodore stood to the side.

The interior of the "house" was completely dark. As Theodore opened the door he stood silhouetted in the doorway for a moment, then entered to find the light switch. The illumination revealed floors, walls, and ceilings made of old wood and cedar. There were two small bedrooms, a kitchen, and the main room which contained a stone fireplace set into the wall. An old grandfather clock stood silently in one corner, partially hidden in the shadows. There was also a door in the rear of the place that lead to a small work shed containing a work bench and an assortment of weapons hanging upon the wall. Located centrally in the main room was a trap door leading to the cellar.

"Nice place." Xander lied as he took a look around and walked inside.

"Yeah for a rat." Cordelia said tactlessly as she followed him in. "Why are you living like this?"

"I'm afraid the Council doesn't believe in luxury abodes for their Watcher's and potential Slayers. Now please have a seat, I believe we have much to talk about."

"Good lord." Theodore bellowed the second time that day, at the end of Xander and Cordelia's story. Leaning back in his chair, Sara brought in some tea and sat it down on the small table before having a seat on the floor herself. "I must admit that, that was quite a story but can you offer some proof?"

"Well...what about this?" Cordelia asked as she reached into a purse she had brought and handed him a picture. As he looked at it he saw himself...no someone that looked like him, standing next to a short blonde, a red head, a tall pale yet familiar looking man and both of the teens before him now.

"This...this isn't real." Theodore sputtered, giving the picture back to her. "I don't know what kind of magic you're..."

"Giles come on." Xander whined. "What do we have to do to prove to you that we are who we say we are?"

"Tell me...tell me more about the future."

"We've already told you to much. And our futures are altered enough already." he said thinking of the death of Spike, Darla, and Drusilla.

"Xander let's go." Cordelia said looking over at him. "It's obvious he's not gonna help us get home."

"Yeah." Xander replied, more then a bit dissappointed. "We probably need to concentrate on that demon Balthazar anyway."

"Balthazar." Theodore perked up at that name. "Are you referring to the vampire Balthazar or the Romanian Balthazar?"

"Romanian." Cordelia responded as Theodore stood to his feet and quickly walked over to a bookshelf in the corner. "Why?"

"Because I ran upon a prophecy about him not to long ago in the book of Bacchus." he answered flipping through some pages of an old tomb. "And it also spoke of two travellers from..." he stopped for a second as he came upon the right page and read it. "the future."

"Mr. Giles!" Sara yelled out getting his attention.

"What on earth is it child?" he asked as she ran to him with a newspaper.

"They found someone else murdered." she said holding it up so he could read the headline.

"Jack the Ripper strikes again. Damn him."

"You sound like you know who he is?"

"That's because I do." Theodore said as he looked up at Xander. "We've never met personally but he was a Watcher that was sent to america in 1885 to watch over a native american potential named Naayee Neizghani. We don't know all of what happened but it was said that he became possessed and when he returned to England three years later he started killing ladies of the evening."

"Why didn't the Council tell Scotland yard who he was so he could be captured?" Xander asked. "And why kill prostitutes?"

"A great majority of the Council wanted to involve them but our leader William Travers, thought otherwise. We've even tried to do a locater spell on him, but whatever has possessed him was blocking our spell. As for his victims, I have no earthly idea why he chose them, nor why he's decided to kill again."

"This murder took place close to where we're staying at." Cordelia observed as she picked up the paper. "We've probably seen this guy before and didn't even know it."

"Well maybe this will jog your memory." Theodore said going to a portfolio and handing her a photograph. "Does he look familiar?"

"No, I've never seen him before." Xander said looking over her shoulder.

"But, I have." Cordy said nervously. "This is that man that lives next to us."

"Are you certain?" Theodore asked, taking the picture back.

"Yeah." she replied as she looked over at Xander in a way that said, do you know what this means.

"Jenice." they both concluded at the same time as they bolted for the door.

"Buffy!" Xander yelled as his horse sped towards the door. Mounting her, he helped Cordelia up before speeding away.

"Return here as soon as possible and I'll see if I can assist you!" Theodore yelled after them as they sped down a corner. "And may God watch over your souls." he said lowly as he closed the door to his home. Because the last time the Council sent someone after him, they had all returned in pieces.

Langham Hotel

Sametime

Angel sat up on his cot, fully refreshed. Reaching down to the floor he picked up a jar of pigs blood from under his bed. Taking the lid off of it he took a whiff of it's foul stench and turned his head. He could remember not to long ago that he was enjoying the blood of... No he didn't want to think like that anymore. He was Angel now...but what did that mean exactly?

He was told by Xander and Cordelia that he would one day be a hero, but honestly he didn't feel like one. He felt dirty... like that same bastard that killed and maimed for over a hundred years. Taking his mind off of such thoughts he drank some of the copper tasting blood and winced at the taste. Having had enough, he stood to his feet and walked over to Cordelia's room and didn't see anyone.

"Great they've left me 'ere." he said aloud as he picked up their scent. As he did so he immediately knew something was wrong because he picked up someone's fear. Not just anyone's but Jenice's.

Opening the door to the room he walked out and as he was about to pass the door to the strange man he had seen the other day, he suddenly picked up a big whiff of Jenice's fear coming from it. Not knowing why he was angered by the thought of her being afraid, he lifted up his foot and kicked down the door, splintering wood.

Forgetting all about the vampire rule of being invited in, he stormed into the room and looked around. Quickly running out of the room, he thought about two things as he entered the sewer access tunnel in the sub basement of the hotel. One, he deduced that the man in 121B wasn't human, since he was able to enter his room and the second thing was that he wasa serial killer.

The Abandoned West End Church

Jenice sat chained and gagged on the altar of the old church, as she looked up at Jack who was slowly approaching her with a knife. The closer he got to her the more animalistic... no the more demonic his face became.

The church they were inwas a vast vaulted building. Multiple levels surrounded a central atrium with balconies looking out across the marbled floors. The place seemed to be under construction, maybe to restore it, with scaffolding rising up from the floor to the upper levels.

"Fret not child." Jack said removing her gag. "You're about to help me usher in a better world."

"What...what are you talking about?" she asked him shakily. She knew better to try to scream, because if she was correct he had just got done doing a spell that would sound proof the room.

"What I'm talking about is the restoration of Glorificus. Since you're from Romania then I'd wager you know quite abit about magic." he said as he sat down beside her, as if they were having a normal conversation. "You see because of you I realized that the sacrifices that I made years before were nothing. To restore Glorificus to this world she needed a human anchor, both male and female."

"So...so you're not going to kill me?"

"Quite the contrary my dear." Jack said with a creul smile. "I'm going to kill you and then, I'm going to horribly disfigure you." as he said that to her, she smelled a foul stench. Looking to the left of herself she saw the naked and mutilated body of a young male.

"But...but..."

"It's a rather strange spell but in order for it to work the male and female vessels have to be devoid of some human features like faces and the like. And when she materializes into this world and contorts into both bodies her face and features will show."

"And here I was thinkin' that the infamous Jack The Ripper didn't like women." a voice said from the shadows.

"Who goes there?" Jack asked as he stood to his feet, his large ceremonial knife held at the ready.

"Angelus the Scourge of Europe." Angel said walking out of the shadows.

"Ah yes, your reputation proceeds you." he replied amused. "But why are you here?"

"I heard that you were back in the killin' business." Angel said with a shrug. "So I thought, why not see you in action for meself."

"Is that so?" Jack asked as he eyed him suspiciously. In the blink of an eye he picked up a rock and threw it at a large window, shattering it and sending in a stream of sunlight that seperated them both. "Do you think me a fool vampire? I can smell the stench of your soul from all the way over here."

"Really Jack? Now tell me do you smell the stench of your own blood?" Angel asked as he vamped out.

Smiling Jack looked right in the center of the sunlit floor, knowing he was unreachable.

"We'll see about that vampire." he said as he turned around, ready to plunge the knife inside of the girl.

"Angel!" Jenice yelled at the top of her lungs. Letting out a growl Angel jumped the ten foot gap, the sunlight pouring on his body but not harming him, as he got to the other side.

"Impossible." Jack said surprised as he turned back around.

Angel seized the opportunity and kicked his legs up, knocking the knife from his hands, as the two squared off. Not being able to take the waiting Angel attacked, throwing quick jabs before landing a solid blow to Jack's head.

He threw another punch at his dazed opponent, only for him to seize his arm and wrench it backward, before slamming his fist into his face, stunning him. Pushing him back, Jack spinned around, throwing a back hander against Angel's head making him collapse to the floor.

"I heard you were a warrior of legend?" Jack asked as he stood towering over Angel. "Where's your bite vampire?"

With that said he yanked Angel to his feet and punched him in the gut, then pounded him to floor again, kicking him hard enough to skid across the floor to the other side of the room. He lied on his back, gasping in pain and as he rolled over, blood dripped from his mouth and onto the floor.

"I shant be a minute longer my darling." Jack said as he looked at Jenice then back to Angel. "This shouldn't take much longer at all."

As he approached the downed vampire, Angel slipped a dagger out from inside his jacket, that he had stolen from Jack's room before he left, and whipped it at him, impaling him through the chest. In an instant, he wason his feet, his fists a flurry of punches, rocking the deranged killer backward and throwing him off-balance. As he started to fall back Angel ripped the knife out of him and slashed at him but he dodged and weaved, before kicking the knife from his hand.

It flew up through the air as Angel beat Jack back, kicking him fast and hard. Sensing the knife decending he snatched it out of the air and raked the blade across Jack's chest. The killer hissed in pain and renewed his attack. With demonic strength he kicked Angel viciously, sending him tumbling backward, then leaped straight up into the scaffolding 30 feet overhead.

"It's quite funny vampire." Jack started as Angel got up and walked among the metal gridwork in the room, scanning the upper levels for him. But to his dismay his voice echoed throughout the marble building making it hard to pinpoint him. "Both of us are ruthless killers... so why are you fighting me?"

Angel spinned, dagger raised to strike but Jack seized his arm, stopping the blow. He brought Angel's arm down on his leg, then kicked him violently making him fly up and onto one of the scaffolding grids, his dagger skittering away across the room. A moment later, Jack leaped up next to him and attacked.

Angel dodged him, using the metal latticework to avoid his blows while trying to land some of his own. They danced across the scaffolding, dodging and weaving, their movements a kind of obscene ballet. Finally Angel leaped to the top but found that Jack was already there. With an evil grin Jack hurled the vampire off and he fell two dozen feet to the hard marble floor below, Jack jumping down next to him. As Angel started to stand up he double punched him to the head, making him stagger, drunkenly, stunned.

"I offered you a way out vampire." Jack said giving Angel another vicious blow to the head knocking him to the floor. Looking down he saw a piece of wood by his feet, so he picked it up and grinned. "You should have taken it."

With a beastial cry of rage, Angel leaped to his feet and delivered a stunning uppercut to Jack's jaw, rocking him backward. He followed with a roundhouse kick to his chest, snapping several ribs and driving him to the floor. His fury was like a living thing now and he leaped on Jack, rolling him over and hit him, one devastating blow after another. His head snapped back, then forth, his eyes losing more focus with each shattering punch.

Letting the inner demon in him loose, Angel leaned down and bit deeply into the Whitechapel killers neck. With a strangled cry, as his blood was taken out of him, Jack tried to rip Angel off him but to no avail. Completely draining him Angel snapped his neck before letting him fall bonelessly to the floor.

With the surge of both demon and human blood coursing through him, Angel's body began to violently shake. In the first time in his unlife it seemed that his true beast was finally set free. As he was about to let loose a primal growl, he suddenly heard someone crying. Looking back he saw Jenice still sitting on the floor curled up.

Running over to her, she looked up at him and screamed. Touching his face, he shook his head and dropped out of his vampiric visage before leaning down and ripping off her chains.

"Come on lass." he said picking her up in his arm's. "Let's get you home." if the two had've stayed any longer they would've seen three fist sized demon head's materialize out of Jack the Rippers body. As the demon's floated around and laughed a red portal opened up and they went into it and back to hell.

Langham Hotel

Later That Day

Xander turned around, revolver raised up as he saw someone opening his door. He relaxed however as he and Cordy saw that it was only Angel, cradling Jenice in his arm's.

"Where the hell have you been!" Xander immediately yelled out as he ran up to them. "I thought I told you too..." he was cut off as Angel violently growled deep in his throat at him.

"Back off." Angel ordered as he walked past him and opened up the door to Cordelia's room before closing it.

"What was that about?" Cordelia asked, only for Xander to look at her wierdly and hunch up his shoulders.

* * *

"There you go lass." Angel said putting Jenice down in her bed. She only stared up into space however and hadn't spoke to him since he rescued her. "Get some sleep."

"Angel." he heard her whisper. Turning around he saw that she was looking up at him with innocent eyes. Innocent eyes that had seen nothing but death and destruction the last few weeks.

"Yeah lass?"

"How...how were you able to jump through sunlight?" she asked. "I thought your kind caught on fire..."

"We do." Angel cut her off as he put his hand by a small stream of light that poured through the curtain of her room. He let out a wince however as the sunlight now burnt his hand, blackening it where it touched. "And I...I don't know how I was able to do that. It felt as if someone were watching over me."

"I...I wanted to say that I was sorr..."

"No need to say that lass. You had your reasons." he said as he opened up the door to the next room and shut off the lights in her's. "Goodnight."

Place Unknown

Sametime

"Where the hell am I?" a beautiful naked blonde woman asked as she looked around, seeing nothing but endless red clouds and darkness around her.

"Glorificus, how nice to see you." a disemboweled voice spoke out of the darkness. As Glory looked up to the figure standing above her, the last thing she saw was a sharp scythe coming down and then darkness.

A/N I know that the Jack the Ripper reasoning for killing those prostitutes were far fetched but hey, it's fanfic right? Also the spell he cast to seal off sound in the room was my explaination on why the police/constable's never heard his victim's as they screamed their last screams in those alley's.

TBC...

Please Review...


	10. Chapter 9 Enter Vlad

A/N I worked hard on this chapter to include a loyal fan of mine in named Vlad the Impish. He's been supporting my work since the beginning of me writing fanfic and this is a thank you to him. So Vlad I hope you like it.

Also thanks for all the great reviews. I appreciate it.

Chapter 9

Enter Vlad

The Underworld

Second Circle Of Hell

Deep within a massive pit, demons some winged, some scaled of all sorts roared from the distant corners of the cavern where they stood. As if drowning out the sound their master, who had brown muscled skin and large black horns, sat at his throne asleep.

Suddenly somebody...something dressed in a dark cloak appeared in the underground pit . It had a vicious bladed scythe clutched in one hand, a boa constrictor coiling around the shaft. If anybody looking at him didn't know better, they might think it was the Grim Reaper. Seeing that no one noticed him, the figure slammed the bottom of his scythe into the hard stone floor making most of the creatures jump and for their master to awaken from his slumber.

"I am Vlad the Tormentor of Souls and over lord of the second circle of hell!" the big demon growled as he stood to his feet, his large bat like wings spreading out as he did so. "Who are you and why have you disturbed my slumber?"

"I am Lord Balthazar the next ruler of earth." Balthazar informed him as demon's cackled madly behind him.

"Ah yes Balthazar, I've heard of you." Vlad said as a creul smile twisted his lips. "If memory serves you were the one who was so easily defeated at the hands of an upstarter witch." as he announced that his demons again roared in laughter, only making Balthazar clutch his scythe tighter. "Now what brings you down here, oh dark lord?"

"Your death." Balthazar grumbled as the demons stopped laughing. Enraged five of them jumped off the walls and before they could hit the ground, Balthazar twirled around with a lightning quick series of slashes that tore the demons to pieces.

Before the bodies hit the floor, more demons flew out of the crude arena only to meet the same fate as the others. Throwing his scythe high into the air Balthazar did a spin kick that sent three more to the floor. Catching the scythe with one hand, he punched a demon in the face so hard that the back of his fist went through it's head. Whipping his bladed weapon back around, he chopped off the head of another before striking the demon behind him through the back.

Finishing off his attacks the demons around him stood frozen, their eyes wide. And as he stopped spinning his scythe around they all litterally fell to pieces in a vision of gore and fell to the ground.

"How dare you!" Vlad yelled angrily, as he picked up a huge red sword at his side. "You will die for this."

"Then let it begin." Balthazar said as he beckoned him forward.

Sparks flashed with each blow the two exchanged with their bladed weapons. Not getting much of an advantage Vlad attempted to get the upper hand and struck out with his sword, almost faster then the human eye could see, only for Balthazar to parry each one in stride. Using the shaft end of his scythe, Balthazar tripped up the towering demon, but before he could fall he raised up the scythe and chopped off his head.

Walking through the path of all of the demon bodies, Balthazar got in the middle of them and hit his scythe down to the floor. Mumbling a spell under his breath lightning sounded in the chasm, as a dark mist formed over the bodies. As the dark mist swirled around the spell ended and it flew in a rush into Balthazar's body.

Falling over from the rush of power Balthazar's cloak ripped itself off of his body as a pair of huge bat wings appeared on his back and as bulging muscles grew. Standing to his feet his eyes changed into an almost oil black as his new wings folded across his chest as if it were his new cloak.

"Goodbye Vlad." Balthazar said as he turned around and flew up out of the hole. "I'll see you in hell." was his echoing barb as he dissappeared.

Moments later a smaller teenaged demon, that looked a little like Vlad flew down into the pit and looked around at all the carnage before him. As his wings folded over his chest he walked through the sea of dead bodies that layed at his feet until he saw something in a far corner.

"Rethaf!" it yelled out in a demonic language as it ran to the headless body of Vlad. "Rethaf!" picking up Vlad's head it closed his eyes. After a few seconds he snapped his eyes open and a snarl crossed his features.

Letting go of Vlad's head he stood to his feet and looked about the chasm.

"Here me demon's of the underworld!" he yelled out, speaking english. "I am Vlad the Impish, prince of the second circle."

"You have our ear young one." a disembowled voice spoke out of the shadows.

"I have scanned my father's memory and I have seen that a demon has slain him. I demand the right of vengence."

"Granted." the voice spoke again after a moment. "You may go to the upper world, but know that your powers will be limited."

"Balthazar you are mine!"

England

Sametime

Xander, Cordelia, Angel and Jenice finally arrived at Giles' house on a buggy, that they had made out of the old cart that they used to escape from Dasa. Even though Xander never learned all of what happened between Angel and Jenice the two had become close.

With that drastic change alot of tension left out of the group as a whole. Angel was even teaching her some moves that he had learned over the years. The funniest part of it was when Cordelia gave the vampire a make over. Now he looked like the old Angel err... the new... the same Angel from their time. She had cut his hair shorter and much to Xander's dismay, used some of his hair gel to complete the effect.

She couldn't do much about his clothes however, because of the time frame they were in now, but she had picked out some all black clothes and dark colored shirts, to match his brooding personality.

"Alright guy's we're here." Xander said as he stopped his horse carriage in front of Giles shack.

"Are you sure?" Jenice asked him skeptically.

"Yeah, now come on let's get this over with." he said jumping down. As he and Angel helped the girls down, Xander moved over to the door and gave it a quick tap. After a few seconds Giles opened the door and smiled warmly at them.

"Please come inside." he said as he stepped back and allowed all four of them inside. His gaze however stopped on Angel as he stepped through the door. "Have we met?"

"Uhhh..."

"Before we get started on anything we need to be truthful about something." Xander cut him off, as Giles examined Angel closer. There was something off about him. His skin was ghastly pale and it didn't appear that he ws breathing...

"He's ah..."

"Vampire!" Sara finished for him as she emerged out of the other room with a crossbow in hand. Letting a bolt fly out, Angel tried to use his vampiric speed but was still hit through the chest. The bolt narrowly missing his heart.

"No!" Jenice yelled out as she jumped in front of him, Cordelia going for Sara and Xander for Giles.

"G-man calm down let us explain." Xander said holding Theodore in a full nelson, so he wouldn't pick up his sword.

"Do you bloody know what you've done!" Theodore roared as he struggled against Xander's grasp. "How could you bring that thing into my home?"

"G-man calm down and I'll explain everything."

"Then bloody start." Theodore started as he stopped struggling. "And never call me that again."

"Alright Angel has a soul."

"That's preposterous, no one has that sort of power to do such a thing."

"My Bunica did." Jenice spoke up. "She's the one who did the original spell."

With that said, Xander and Cordelia had no choice but to tell Giles more about the future. They told him everything from the way Angel came into the group, until the way he left.

"Say I do believe you." Giles said as Xander let him go. "Sara put down your weapon." he said as his young charge tried to pick up her crossbow again.

"But Mr. Giles..."

"Sara just put it down." he ordered. Letting out a frustrated sigh, she tossed her weapon back to the floor. "Let's just say I do believe you." Giles tried again as he looked over at Xander and then Angel. "Angelus is one of the evilist vampires of our time. We don't even have a record on how many people he's killed, but we think it's in the thousands. Now you wish me to believe that all of that has changed without any proof?"

"The only proof I can give you is my word and that I trust Angel with...with my life." Xander said a little begrudgingly. "He's even the one that stopped Jack the Ripper from killing..."

"He stopped him from killing me." Jenice spoke up as she stood to her feet. "His sire and childe's were responsible for slaughtering my people in Borsa." she stopped for a second to think about her uncle's, aunt's, cousin's, and father who didn't make it. Giles had to admit it himself that he had heard of all the carnage. "But he saved me and there's no telling how many others."

"Alright..."

"What!" Sara shouted out, disgusted. "This isn't alright. Don't you remember what..."

"Sara he isn't the one who killed your parents." Giles said back, only to see tears of hurt stinging in her eyes. Turning she ran back into her room and slammed the door.

"What was that all about?" Cordelia asked as Giles took his glasses off to clean them.

"The day I went to america to find Sara to tell her of the Slayer, I witnessed her family being slaughtered by three vampires. I managed to slay two of them but the third got away." Giles started as he put his glasses back on his face. "Every since then even though she never saw the demon's true face, she has vowed to herself to kill every vampire she encountered, in hopes of taking him out before she herself will perish."

"I'll...I'll go and talk to her." Jenice said as she slipped into her room.

"The Council will be in late night session tomorrow. You all are welcome to stay here until then."

* * *

A dark figure sat perched on top of a neighboring house across from Theodore's. As his gaze swept away from it's direction he shook his head in irritation.

'Neither one of them has enough power to defeat him.' he thought to himself. He had sensed great power coming from this area when he had reached the earth, but he was greatly dissappointed when he arrived. The tall raven haired woman seemed to hold the most mystical energy and the next in line was the man with the fedora hat.

'But neither of them would be a match for Balthazar.' with that thought in mind, Vlad now in human form jumped off of the building and flew off into the night.

The Next Night

The Council building actually wasn't that far away from where Giles lived. And looking up at the elegant eight story building, Xander figured that they had more money then they knew what to do with. Which left him to wonder why they would leave their Watcher's in such shabby conditions. Walking towards the entrance of the establishment, Jenice and Angel stayed in the buggy as Cordelia, Giles, Xander, and Sara walked in.

Going through a vast chamber of doors, they walked down a long hallway and through some double doors before finally getting to the main room. The room however was much like Xander thought it would be. A long elegant table in a darkened room, with about eleven members sitting on either side of the table and the leader sitting at the head of it slightly obscured by the darkness.

"Ahhh... Mr. Giles you've finally arrived." William Travers spoke with a false smile in his voice. "Please introduce the Council to your young...friends."

"Yes...yes this is Miss Cordelia Chase and this is the last known descendant of Van Helsing, Alexander Xan Helsing."

"That's a very interesting claim." Travers spoke up as he eyed Xander curiously. "But after what you've done I couldn't possibly call you a liar."

"What I've done?" Xander asked, confused.

"Yes, our contacts informed us that you managed to slay three of the most dangerous vampires in history. It's a pity however that you weren't able to find and eliminate Angelus."

"Yeah, what a real pity." Xander replied sharing a nervous glance towards Cordelia.

"Quite. Mr. Giles has told us of your plight and rest assured that the Council will do anything in it's power to assist you. I have two of my best Watchers going through our archived library as we speak."

Xander did a mental happy dance at that, but his heart fell at the rest of what Travers had to say.

"Provided that you do something for us. I only think it fair that if we help you do something that you'll do the same for us."

"What did you have in mind?" Xander asked.

"Merely for you to escort a box to Westbury, England for us."

"That sounds simple enough." Cordelia said as she nudged Xander on the shoulder.

"Good. Here are the directions to where the box of Alucard must be delivered." he said as he quickly picked up a map, got a piece of paper, jotted down some information and passed it down the table. "It's imperative that you leave tonight because it must be in Westbury by noon tomorrow. A coach should be waiting for you outside."

"Alright, we'll see what we can do."

"Good. I have every bit of confidence in you." he said as Xander and the others walked out of the room.

"Sir you can't actually consider letting that boy and that...that little slapper..."

"I've made my decision." Travers cut the man sitting next to him off. "If he is indeed a Helsing, as I believe him to be, then it's important that he finish Abraham Van Helsing's work. He gave his life putting that accursed vampire into that box and I think it more then fitting that a relative finish what was started."

"But sir, Alucard..."

"Will be taken care of, now enough Mr. Wyndam-Pryce. Do not question my authority again."

* * *

As Xander and the others went outside to the coach that was waiting for them, they saw that the box, that was on a hitch connected to the back of the coach, was actually a coffin. Running his hand down the side of it, he saw that it had ancient runes carved into it and it had a symbol of a demonic face on the top of it.

"We get body duty?" Cordelia asked annoyed, as she let out a sigh. "Man our life sucks."

"Tell me about it." he said as Angel and Jenice walked up to them, leading Buffy by her reins. "G-man do you know who this Alucard guy is?"

"Don't call me that and I haven't a clue." Theodore said taking a closer look at the runes. "Certain books in the library are restricted to some Watchers, unless it's deemed neccessary for them to know. I must admit however that the name does sound vaguely familiar."

"I never heard of him either." Angel spoke up. "But whatever is inside is powerful. I can feel it."

* * *

Hearing a voice speaking to her mind, Jenice walked over to the coffin and ran her hand down it's symbols. Staring intently at the demonic face on it, she was startled as someone touched her on her shoulder.

"Sorry luv." a man said in a thick english accent. "I didn't mean to startle you."

"It's alright." she replied as she turned around and looked at him. He was tall and looked to be about in his twenties, wearing a dark business suit, with short curly blonde hair and some of the most intense green eyes she had ever seen in her life.

"My name is...Jonathan...Jonathan Gosling." he said as he reached down, took her hand and kissed it softly. "And might I inquire as to who you are?"

"Oh...my name is...is Jenice." she said, taken totally off guard.

"Jenice." he said as he let her name roll off of his tongue. "My what a beautiful name. May I also ask who died?"

"Jenice." Angel said as he threw a protective arm around her shoulder, as he glared at Jonathan. There was just something about the young man he didn't like. And what was more amazing was that he just stared, back at him icyly. "Come on lass, we have to go."

"It...it was nice to meet you Jonathan." Jenice said as Angel led her away.

"Yes, I'm sure we'll meet again real soon." Jonathan replied as he took a closer look at the coffin, before they drove away. 'Father taught me what that symbol meant long ago.' he thought to himself. 'But what the bloody hell does it mean and why am I sensing so much power from it?'

* * *

"Alucard, Alucard, Alucard..." Cordelia repeated to herself as she tapped her pencil on a small notepad she had brought. Angel and Xander were outside driving the coach as the others sat in it's cab. "Why does that name sound so familiar?" she asked more of herself as she scribbled the name one more time.

"Perhaps you're trying too hard to remember." Giles suggested. "Try getting some rest. We have a long ride ahead of us, it'll come to you."

"Hey Jenice are you cold?" Cordelia asked as she looked up and saw her, sitting next to Giles shivering.

"Yes, I'm cold... so cold..."

"Well here." she said handing her a black cloak that sat neatly folded next to her. "This should warm you up." quickly taking the material, Jenice layed it across herself and felt a little better.

"Wow you must be popular where you come from?" Sara asked as she rummaged through Cordelia's purse, taking out make up and perfume. She had thought Cordelia was a prostitute when she had first seen her but...

"Sara stay out of Miss Chase's things." Giles said reaching for the bag.

"It's okay Giles, she's not hurting anything." Cordy said looking back down at the notepad. "But if you touch my Rose Sable lipstick, I'll sock you one."

"You see Mr. Giles I wasn't doing anything wron..." before she could complete her sentence, the coach hit a rock in the road making the compact mirror she held in her hand fly out of her hand and into Cordelia's lap.

"Hey watch where you're driving doofus!" Cordy yelled out of the window to Xander.

"Sorry." came his half hearted apology a moment later.

Picking the mirror up, Cordy was about to hand it over to Sara when she looked down and saw the reflected name on the mirror.

"Oh my God." she whispered to herself as she heard a light thump on the top of the cab. Before she could ask what the noise was, blue flame exploded outside of the coach.

* * *

'Ahhh... there they are.' Jonathan thought to himself as he flew high over the country side and saw the groups horse drawn carriage. Spreading his wings further out of the back of his suit, he glided down and landed softly on top of the cab.

"Did ya, here somethin'?" Angel asked as he looked over at Xander.

"No, you must be hearing things." Xander replied as he tried to concentrate on how to move the horses on the dirt path.

"Fools." Jonathan said under his breath as he gathered blue energy in both of his hands. "You are all fools." unleashing the power, violent streams of blue energy shot out of his hands and caused a massive explosion.

Making sure the coach didn't flip over, because of the force of the explosion, Xander had no choice but to change the direction of the cab and drive off the road and into the Cimmerean forest. As it rolled through the sparse fog filled forest, a wheel suddenly hit a large puddle of mud, making it stop with a violent lurch and for the coffin part in the back to snap off.

"Is everybody alright?" Xander immediately asked, as he jumped down from his seating position and threw open the doors of the coach.

"Yes..." Giles said, breathing hard. "We all seem to be in one piece." he said as he looked around at the scared faces of Cordelia and Sara. He noted however that Jenice only had a blank expression on her face and that her skin started to look pale. It was as if the experience they had just undertaken meant nothing to her.

"What the hell is going on?" Cordelia asked as she and Sara stepped out of the cab nervously.

"I think we're about to find out." Angel said as he took a few steps back from the coach and looked on top of it. Stepping away from it aswell the group looked up and saw the man that identified himself as Jonathan Gosling was standing on top of the coach grinning madly at them.

"Allow me to reintroduce myself." Jonathan started as his human guise faded only to be replaced by huge bat wings and the body of a demon. "I am Vlad the Impish and I have come for what you possess." he said looking at the coffin.

"Xander we can't let him take that." Cordelia hurriedly whispered to Xander.

"Why."

"Because of this." she said showing him her notepad.

"Yeah it's Alucard what's so..."

"Spell it backwards you moron!" she whined as she slapped him on the side of the head with it. Taking another look at it Xander sounded out the words.

"Dracula."

"Precisely." Vlad said with a short laugh. "Now so you won't try to stop me..."

With that he snapped his clawed fingers and thirty worm covered, zombie looking creatures appeared out of nowhere.

"Dear lord?" Giles said taking a step back.

"Everybody get ready." Xander said as he whipped out his revolvers.

"All of you are such cowards." Jenice said over her shoulder as she whipped the cloak around her neck.

"Jenice!" Xander yelled out, as she took off to engage the demons.

Wrapping the cloak around her body like a cape, Jenice ran like a bull and plowed through the line of Hidiacs, knocking them to the ground. As some of them started to get to their feet she immediately jumped into action, fighting them all off with a flurry of punches and kicks. She grabbed the decomposing arm of one of her attackers and flipped him over into another demon, knocking the both of them down to the muddy ground. Sensing more running up to her she dropped down and did a sweep kick that took out one more. Grabbing the head of another, she kicked up and planted a foot across it's forehead, cracking the skull.

Grabbing two more from behind, she lifted both of them off of the ground and threw them twenty feet away as if they were nothing. Turning Jenice was punched visciously on the point of her jaw sending her spiraling to the ground. As she landed she executed a powerful kick that swept the legs out from under another one of her demonic enemies. Turning, she slammed a open palmed strike against another one's neck, before snapping to her right and driving an elbow into another's gut. Looking up she saw a couple more rushing her.

Blocking both of their attacks at once, she spun, her cloak billowing around her and landed an elbow to the Hidiac's head that he wasn't able to block. Spinning back around, she raised up her leg and went for a high kick that the other demon ducked under. As it rose back up Jenice tried a rainbow kick that snapped across the villain's head. Another demon attempted to come at her from her side and swing at her, but she managed, at the last second to go under the blow.

* * *

Xander and the others watched with their jaws dropped as they saw Jenice going at it, with over two dozen demons. Even while watching Buffy fight for over three years, he had never seen anyone fight so intensely. Especially not an amateur fighter. Something was definately wrong.

"What the hell have you been teaching her deadboy?" Xander asked as he looked up at Angel.

"Never mind that." Cordelia said getting their attention. "Shouldn't we be helping her?"

"Right, you guy's help her..." Xander said as he looked back at Vlad, who was looking over the runes of the coffin, putting droplets of blood on the top of it. "Batman over there is mine."

With that said, Angel, Cordelia, Sara, and Giles ran to their intended targets after gathering what little weaponry they had with them.

"Hey!" Xander yelled as he ran up behind Vlad.

"I was hoping I'd get to fight tonight." Vlad said as he tilted his head and looked at Xander with blood red eyes. "But it's amusing how you let women fight for you."

"My girls can hold their own." Xander replied with a wink as he holstered his guns.

"Enough talk." the winged demon said as it jumped off of the coach. "If I can't have my vengence on Balthazar then I'll have it on you."

"What..." was all Xander was able to get out as Vlad leaped forward with a flying kick that Xander was barely able to block.

Temporarily forgetting what he said, Xander came at the demon with a flurry of punches and backhand blows, which were each effortlessly blocked. With a smile Vlad countered with a stiff kick to Xander's stomach and as he started to go down followed up with a knee to the face.

Managing to get out of the demons grasp and get his second wind, the two circled each other sizing each other up. Seeing an opening in his defense Vlad charged toward Xander and executed a spinning kick that he barely managed to duck under. As he rose back up he quickly kicked the demon in the chest before open palm striking him across the head and horns.

"You fight well for a human." Vlad said as he picked himself off of the ground. "But now it's time to say goodbye to your life."

The two then charged each other again and delivered a fierce exchange of kicks and punches to each other. Xander was a little faster in his moves however as he kicked Vlad across the face, and while still in midair, brought his other leg around and sweep kicked the demon's legs from under him, sending him crashing to the ground. As he tried to stand to his feet, he felt the barrel of a gun being pressed to his forehead.

"Goodbye." Xander commented darkly as he pulled the hammer back on his revolver. Before he could squeeze the trigger, they both heard a loud explosion. Looking back just in time they saw that the top of the coffin had exploded with a shower of wood and saw dust raining down on them.

'Now what?' Xander asked himself, as a head popped up out of what was left of the coffin and smiled at them insanely.

A/N This will be the version of Alucard/Dracula from the japanese anime Hellsing Manga, not that sissy Dracula shown on Buffy the vampire Slayer. He will be slightly different still because I have to make exceptions for the crossover.

Also Vlad I hope that you liked this chapter it was very fun to write. Oh and Jenice is a little possessed. Guess by who.

TBC...

Please Review


	11. Chapter 10 The No Life King

A/N Thanks for all of the reviews and I hope you guys like this chapter because I had to go through tons of anime cartoons just to get Alucard, some fight scenes, and the settings right. I also got the help of an old friend of mine to help with a few scenes. Enjoy...

Also I wanted to send a shout out to speaker4thesilent, I'm glad you like the story and please keep reviewing. To answer your question, no Xander isn't a real Helsing but this is how Alucard will be bound to the Helsing family. You'll see what I mean by the end of the chapter.

And to Seraphwalker I'm writing on your scene as we speak. I really hope you like what I come up with. Also Alucard is controlling Jenice.

Chapter 10

The No Life King

Darkness fell over the Cimmerean forest as thunder boomed through the sky and lightning crashed to the ground. A massive wind then blew through the forest, howling in between the trees.

Xander's trigger finger trembled and his right eyebrow started to twitch as the smiling man in the coffin stood up and looked around, before finally settling on looking at him again. He had long straggly black hair, red eyes, thick eyebrows, and almost hawk like features. But what was most strange about him was that he was wearing an all black unlaced straight jacket.

Under the veil of his long hair, that now covered his face, Xander could see as a long tongue slipped out of his mouth. Seeing that he was now distracted, Vlad kicked up his leg knocking the other gun, that Xander pointed at him, out of his grasp. Turning back around, a fist exploded against his temple knocking him to the ground. With a smile, Vlad ran to Alucard and looked up at him.

"So you're the one I've read about in the book of shadows." he started. "The no life king." as if responding to the name Alucard looked down at him and as the wind whipped past his hair Vlad saw that he was licking his fangs.

"I hunger." he said in a deep demonic growl as he jumped out of the coffin and flew over to where the others were fighting.

* * *

Giles stood with his eyes closed for a second as a group of Hidiacs armed with sabers charged towards him. Snapping his eyes open he blocked a sword swipe and whacked the right end of his cane across the demon's head. Activating a secret catch on his cane, Giles took out a fencing type sword.

He turned to his left and speared his sword through a demons stomach, before spinning around and swinging downward to chop the sword hand off of another. Hearing a growl beside him he snapped the sword upside a demon's head and twirled back around to swing his weapon, slashing it across three soldiers cutting off their heads.

Looking around for his young charge he saw her fighting alongside Jenice. Hefting his sword up he ran over to help them.

* * *

Whenever she was faced with danger Cordelia's first instinct was always to run. Especially when Buffy came to town and all hell broke loose in Sunnydale. But after spending so much time with her and the scooby gang well she still wanted to run... but deep down she knew she had to fight for her real friends. This was one of those times.

'Ready okay.' Cordy thought to herself as she ducked under a left, by one of her attackers. Whenever she practiced with Angel, by some foreign habit she would always think back to her practicing her routine as a cheerleader. To her it was the only way to stay focused.

'3,2,1...' each time she counted she followed up with a punch to the demons face. Ducking under another punch she knee'd him in the gut and knife hand chopped it on the back of the neck.

Taking a dagger out of her side sheathe she threw it and winced as the bladed weapon embedded itself in the ass of a demon that was trying to attack Angel from behind.

"Oops sorry." she called out before remembering it was the bad guy. "I mean take that." not watching her surroundings, like Angel had taught her, a demon ran beside her and punched her hard in the face, sending her spinning.

As she turned around she hit her head on the side of a tree, nearly knocking her unconcious. As she leaned against it, ready to pass out , she suddenly heard Matier speaking in her mind. As her now booming voice told her to use her power, Cordelia had a rush of memories, calculations, and spells all jumbled into her mind.

Pushing off of the tree and turning around to face the fight, two demons suddenly jumped up into the air on either side of her. Closing her eyes, she suddenly snapped them open and they turned a milky white. Extending her arms in an x position across her chest, a white light came out of her making the two demons around her that jumped up, slow and then freeze in time.

With a grin on her face, violent wind shot out of her hands and pushed the now unfrozen demons thirty feet away from her. Seeing what she had done, four more ran up to her only to be blown back by her wind attack. Sensing something to her side, she turned only to witness a man tearing a Hidiac in half with his hand before being knocked down by a large shadow, making her scream.

* * *

Rubbing at his jaw, Xander sat up and was greeted with the sound of Cordelia screaming. Jumping up off of the ground he turned and saw the demon that came out of the coffin, holding onto Cordelia from behind, his drooling fangs reaching down for her neck.

"Stop!" Xander yelled, unholstering one of his revolvers and aiming it carefully as his friends ran up behind him, after slaying the last of the Hidiacs. "Let her go!"

Stopping himself an inch from biting into Cordelia's ample neck, Alucard stopped and looked up at Xander and his friends.

"And what would you do?" he asked. "If I don't let her go."

"Just try me and see." Xander warned as he cocked the hammer back on both revolvers.

"Xander!" Cordelia yelled out, as Alucard clutched her body tighter.

"Don't worry Cordy. I got this."

"Then do what must be done." Alucard replied, after a tense moment as he threw Cordelia to the ground.

With a growl Xander unleashed an onslaught of bullets that ripped through Alucard's body, punching fist sized holes into him and tearing off tendons of flesh from his smiling face. Ending his attack Xander and the others watched as the vampire fell to the ground, his blood staining the grass and the trees behind him.

"Is that all you had?" Xander asked as he turned to where Vlad was standing only to find him gone.

"Cordelia are you alright?" Giles asked as she ran over to them.

"Yeah, what the hell was that thing?"

"Nothing we have to worry about anymore." Xander said looking down at the dead demon. "Now let's just get the hell out of..." before he could finish his sentence they all heard the disembowled laughter of Alucard.

Turning they saw a large amount of black mist shooting up to the sky, along with over a hundred screeching bats. As the mist reached almost a hundred feet in the moon lit sky the top of it turned into an arrow as it shot back down and into Alucard's corspe. Still with a wicked smile on his face, Alucard levitated to his feet.

As the mist tore off his straight jacket and healed him Alucard now stood there in victorian fashion styled clothes. Including a charcoal suit, black riding boots, and a flamboyant and intricately knotted bowtie covered by a long red trench coat. He also wore a wide flapping red fedora hat, over his now short black hair and a pair of orange circular, wire-framed sunglasses.

"Now." Alucard started as the gang stared at him wide eyed. "I do believe it's my turn." with that said he ran forward in a blur and jumped over Xander's head, landing in a crouch with his back turned to them all. As he stood up and turned around, Xander saw that the crafty vampire now pointed "his" revolvers at him.

"What the..." Xander said looking down at his empty hands. 'How the hell did he do that?'

"Xander!" Sara yelled out. Turning his head in time and raising up his hand he was able to pluck Sara's blessed silver sword out of the air.

'Talk about bringing a knife to a gun fight.' Xander thought bitterly to himself.

"Tonight seems to be a good night to drink blood." Alucard stated as he twirled Xander's revolvers around.

"Yeah drink this!" Xander yelled as he charged forward with the blessed blade.

Chuckling deep in his throat Alucard looked at Xander as he came running, then held up a revolver and took aim. Barely dodging the blasts Xander's blade whipped out, stabbing the dark vampire in the chest and arms, even as at the same time, Alucard shot again shooting through Xander's gut.

Glaring up at Alucard with glassed over eyes, blood pumping and dripping out of his mouth as his teeth turned red, Xander's eyes started to glow and his breathing started to get heavy. Throwing his head back, as the smoke from the bullet hole in his stomach rose out of him, he started to laugh in a non to human way. Not being able to hold on he fell to his knee's and collasped to the ground.

"No!" Cordelia yelled out as she attempted to run forward, only for Angel to hold her back.

"I'll deal with him."

Switching into his vampiric guise, Angel ran forward even as Alucard holstered the guns. Extending his arm, he ran his hand through Angel's stomach, stopping the vampire cold.

"You dared to think you could stop me freak?" he asked, as Angel slipped back into his human face, bleeding out of his mouth. "I should rip you in half for that."

"But you won't." a voice said from behind him. Before he could turn around to see who spoke to him, an arm wrenched itself around his neck, pulling him off Angel, as he dissappeared in a dark majestic light.

"What...what's happening?" Jenice asked as she shook her head to get the cobwebs out.

"Xander! Xander are you okay?" Cordelia asked as she frantically flipped him over. "We have to get him some help." she said to Giles as she pulled a bloody hand away from Xander's wound.

"I'll try to do what I can for him here but he's already unconcious and lost alot of..."

"Giles we have to do something now!" Cordy yelled, tears stinging her eyes. If anything happened to Xander she didn't know what she'd do.

Second Circle of Hell

Sametime

A purple and black vortex opened up at the bottom of a giant cave pit and after a few moments of it being open Vlad and Alucard spilled out of it. Getting to his feet Alucard immediately turned around to Vlad and pulled out his revolvers.

"Easy friend." Vlad said putting his hands up in a non threatening way. "You don't want to kill me." he said causing Alucard to smile.

"Is that so?" he asked as he pulled the hammer back on both of the revolvers. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you?"

"Because I can give you the descendant of Abraham Van Helsing."

"Impossible. I fought Van Helsing more than twenty years ago. He has no descendants."

"Is that so?" Vlad asked as he sat down in his father's throne. "Then who do you think you were fighting? And who's weapons do you think you have in your possession as we speak?"

As he said that he looked down at the old revolvers and sure enough they were the same one's that Van Helsing used years ago and as he thought back to the boy he had fought moments ago, he wore the same hat that he had worn too.

"I don't take orders." Alucard said looking over at the winged demon. "But what is it that you want in return?"

"Merely for you to kill a demon by the name of Balthazar for me." Vlad said with a small smirk. "Now let me see if I can locate Xan Helsing."

* * *

Cordelia, Angel, Jenice, Sara, and Giles walked into Xander's hospital room and watched as his nurse walked over to another patient. Giles did the best he could to patch the boy up, but he was bleeding to badly. They were happy however that they didn't get that far from London, so when he and Angel pushed the carriage out of the mud, they doubled back.

Swallowing the lump that formed in her throat, Cordelia looked down at him and saw how pale and sickly he looked. Reaching down she stroked his forehead and wiped a bead of sweat off of it.

"I've talked to the doctors and they've told me that Alexander will make a full recovery." Giles said as he put a hand on Cordelia's shoulder. "Luckily the bullet didn't hit any organs or bone."

"Yer father is right missus." the nurse, Betty said as she walked up to the group. "Yer friend should be up and about in no time."

"Father?" Giles mouthed to himself. 'Surely I don't look that old to be called her father?'

"I'll leave you all alone." Betty said walking out of the room.

"Did you hear that dork?" Cordelia asked as she sat down on Xander's bed and looked down at him. Barely holding in her tears. "You're gonna be alright soon. You hear me? I...I need you... oh God just tell me what to do." she said putting her head down on his shoulder.

As she said that a thought suddenly occured to her. Picking her head up and wiping away her tears, she stood up from the bed and walked towards the door.

"Cordelia where are you going?" Giles asked.

"To pay the Council a visit."

"But...but you can't. We must arrange a meeting...procedures have to be..."

"I don't give a damn about procedures!" she all but shouted as she turned around and glared at the older man. "Those jerks knew what was in that coffin and they didn't tell us."

"But..."

"No but's Giles." Cordy cut him off again. "Just...just take care of him for me."

"Of course my dear."

"I'm comin' with you." Angel said with a wince as he ran to her side.

"Are you sure?" she asked as she looked at him up and down. "I thought that after..."

"I'm a vampire." Angel reminded her, even as he winced from his now closing wound. "I'll heal soon."

"Then I'm coming too." Jenice told them.

"And me too." Sara chimed in only for Giles to grab her arm.

"Most certainly not Sara. You will stay here with me."

"But Mr. Giles..."

"It's alright Sara." Cordy replied smiling down at the younger girl. "I need somebody here strong to watch over him while I'm gone. Now come on guys let's take Buffy."

The Watcher's Council

Sometime Later

Chester Smith ran for his life down the corridors of the Council. Nervously looking over his shoulder, he picked up his speed and burst through the double doors of the main meeting room.

"Chester?" Travers asked as he looked up at the heavily sweating man. "What is the meaning of this?"

"Sir...the..." he stopped as the walls began to shake and rattle. Knick-knacks on the walls then fell over and smashed to pieces,on the floor. Nervously looking around Travers and his Watchers, watched as the door suddenly flew open by a howling wind. Moments later Cordelia came floating in several inches above the floor, her hair blowing back by an unseen wind, Angel and Jenice right behind her carrying crossbows.

"How dare you disturb..."

"Shut up!" Cordelia growled as she came down to her feet. Seeing him reaching under the table for something, she whipped her hand up and blasted him with a gust of wind. "And don't move. I want to know why you didn't tell us about Dracula?" she asked as he stared at her blankly. "Now you can talk."

"We didn't think you'd have a problem delivering him." Travers said regaining a bit of his composure back. "And I am to assume that he escaped?"

"Yeah, he's probably out now killing tons of innocents because of you jerks."

"Watch your tongue when you speak to us, you little..."

"You little what?" Cordy asked the Watcher sitting next to Travers, as her body crackled with magic.

"Nothing." he ammended as he sat back in his chair.

"Good, now how do we stop him?" she asked, as she looked back at Travers.

"That...is a bit more complicated then it seems."

"Then make it clear." she demanded. "How did Van Helsing stop him?"

"By giving up his life." he replied, making Jenice and Angel give each other a look.

"What...what do you mean?"

"For many years Dracula walked the earth killing and drinking the blood of many." Travers started with a sigh. "The Council, the Vatican, and...others have tried everything imaginable to slay that beast but he kept coming back. One day a demon hunter, doctor Abraham Van Helsing thought up a way to control the beast with the use of magic."

"What spell did he use?" Cordelia interruped him, having a stray memory of such a spell.

"We have it archived in this book." he said as he turned around and grabbed an old tome off of a bookshelf. "We traveled to Romania and used a witch named Matier to perform the spell. It was called the spell of..."

"Trapped souls." Cordy finished for him.

"Correct. Nevertheless the spell bound two pentagrams on the hands of Dracula that not only made him obey Van Helsing and sealed some of his powers, but he also fought the forces of darkness."

"He was then named Alucard, but years later a powerful sorceress did an incantation on him that made him change back into Dracula." Thomas Wyndam-Pryce interjected. "The Vatican sent Van Helsing and his men out again but to no avail. The beast massacred his entire team, except himself and one other lucky bloke. He went to Matier once more but the spell she needed to put the seal back on him went missing. Making another plan they decided to put Dracula into a permenant slumber."

"But once the spell started, he was about to get out of the spot that he needed to be in, but Abraham grabbed him from behind." Travers picked up the story. "You see no living thing is supposed to be in the circle of the spell and although it put Dracula to sleep it killed Van Helsing immediately. He loved Romania so much that we buried him in an unmarked grave so no one would find and disturb his eternal rest."

"So why were you trying to move Dracula's body?" Jenice suddenly asked. She still couldn't believe that her grandmother was apart of the whole thing.

"Because the Vatican gave him to us in hopes that we could find a way to finally destroy him. Regretfully so, we weren't able to complete that task. So they asked us to ship him to a castle in Westbury, where he was going to be locked away in a dungeon never to see the light of day again."

"I need that spell." she said as she strecthed out her hand making the book fly to her. Turning to leave she thought about something else. "Do you have any books on healing?"

"Of course." he said as he picked out another book and handed it to her along with a few pieces of what looked to be paper with knives stuck in them. With a quick nod her and the others ran out of the room. As some of the Watcher's stood to their feet to pursue them, Traver's lifted up his hand to stop them.

"Leave them be."

"But sir, how could you let them come in and...don't you know that she had that demon Angelus with her?" a black Watcher spoke up.

"Yes, I have realized that but as I said before gentlemen the prophocy has to be fulfilled. If not and Balthazar is left to take control, then we will all perish."

"So what do you suggest we do sir?"

"The only thing we can Samuel. We watch."

Xander's Mind

Sametime

Groggily opening up his eyes, Xander stood to his feet and saw that he was in a forest. Looking around at the vast amount of trees he heard someone talking in the distance. Walking to where he heard the noise, he came into a clearing and saw Jenice in a beautiful dress and Angel in a suit walking towards an altar.

"What the hell is going on?" he asked himself as he walked closer and saw that Giles too was standing at the altar. Then came the big shocker. There standing next to Giles smiling widely was himself.

"What's going on Alexander is a wedding." a familiar voice said behind him. Turning he saw that it was Matier.

"You...what are you...am I dead?" Xander asked nervously, causing the old woman to chuckle.

"No Alexander, you aren't dead. Just unconcious. Remember I told you that we could only meet in the dream world." she explained.

"Okay, now that you've answered that question whose getting married?"

"Isn't it obvious?" she asked as they both turned to look through the trees.

Xander's eyes widened as he saw Cordelia wearing a long sequenced white dress, with the vail pulled off her head. He had seen Cordelia a million times before, but this time she looked different. She was simply the most beautiful girl that he had ever seen in his life. Then it hit him in a flash who was getting married.

"It's me." he blurted out.

"Yes, but you will learn of that later. Right now we must talk about you defeating Balthazar."

"No offence but I'm not worried about him right now." Xander said as he took off his hat. "Right now I'm worried about that Alucard guy."

"Alucard is nothing compared to what Balthazar is now." she went on. "That's why I must increase your powers like I've done for your mate." before Xander could comment on that she put her hands over his temples and blasted him with power. As she did so, she yelled... "But first you must wake up!"

In the land of the living, as Xander sat in bed his hand started to twitch.

* * *

Alucard walked down the long dark hallway of the hospital, his boots clicking on the white tile, with a sinister smile on his face. Because of the lights above, there were alternating pools of light and shadow in the hall and as he advanced down it, his face came in and out of darkness. With each pool of light, his awful smile seemed to widen as he spun a chamber on one of the revolvers.

He couldn't say he liked Vlad much, but he had did what he promised. He had given him the location of Xan Helsing. Even though he wasn't going to help the little demon kill Balthazar, he still wondered who he was and why his name sounded so familiar. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy a good fight, but the little demon was merely trying to use him. He had almost killed Xan Helsing on their first encounter and Vlad had taken him away from the fight, so he could use the young hero as a bargaining chip to kill Balthazar.

'Maybe, I'll kill Vlad as well.' he thought to himself.

Turning a corner, he spotted Xander's door at the very end of the hallway. Taking the other revolver out of his red long coat, he was about to burst down the door until he heard some voices. Manipulating the shadows around him, he stepped back into them and dissappeared.

"I just wanted to check on Xander before we went home to get some rest." Cordelia was saying as she and Jenice turned down the hallway. Angel was downstairs with Buffy, keeping an eye on her. Strangely enough the horse seemed to be in love with the vampire. Wierd.

"Do you think Alucard will try to attack him while he's here?" Jenice asked.

"Indeed I will." the No life kings voice, could be heard as it echoed throughout the hall.

"Where is that voice coming from?" Jenice asked over his hideous laughter.

"I don't know." Cordy said reaching into her bag. "But I'm gonna find out." with that said her hand flew out of her bag and dagger thrusted papers were scattered throughout the hall. After a few seconds Alucard was visible, unable to make his vampiric invicibility power work in the presence of the spiritual wards. "There you are."

"That, I am." he said as he advanced on them. Before he got to close a blur crashed into him, knocking him back a step.

"And here I am." Xander said with a wince as his wound opened back up.

"So you are." the vampire said as he put his arm out and aimed his revolver with it. As he squeezed the trigger time slowed to a crawl as Xander used almost uncanny speed to dodge the blasts.

Getting closer to his opponent, glad that the nurse had left his duster in his room, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his clawed weapons. To late for him to dodge, Alucard could only watch as he activated the weapon and jammed it all the way through the back of his skull.

Pushing the attack as blood, poured out of his wound and his opponents face Xander yanked the blades out and with a crisscrossed motion of his arm cut off Alucards head at the base of his neck. As his still grinning head, fell off of his body, it rolled away down the hall. Letting out another wince, Xander leaned against the wall and started to breathe heavily.

"Finally it's over." Cordy said relaxing a bit as she turned around to see Jenice staring up at her insanely. She could see that the girl was under a spell, but the way she was looking at her told of another story.

"Not quite." Jenice replied as she went in for an attack.

* * *

As Xander was about to take his guns away from the body that still stood on it's feet, he suddenly looked behind it and saw a trail of blood sliding towards him.

"What the hell?" he asked, even as the body grabbed his arm. Looking at it, in shock in an instant the blood ran up Alucard's body and turned itself back into his grinning head.

"Pathetic human. Did you really think chopping off my head would kill me?"

"What the hell are you?"

"Your destruction." Alucard answered, as he pounded into Xander's body with an unrelenting amount of brutal punches. Having him reeling, Alucard smiled as he delivered a powerful kick, that knocked Xander up against the wall.

Before Xander could fall to the ground, Alucard reached out and touched a dagger that was embedded in the wall. The wards zapped him with golden rivuts of electricity that smouldered his hands, but upon embracing the pain he pulled another knife out of the wall. Twirling them in his hands, he rammed them through Xander's shoulder's pinning him to the wall.

Smiling deeply at Xander's screams, he watched as a small stream of blood dripped down his cheek. Wanting to savour the moment and the fight Alucard took a white gloved finger and traced the blood off of Xander's chin. Bringing it to his lips, he finally tasted Xan Helsing's rich blood.

Alucard's grin slipped however as his ungodly senses picked up a disturbance of magic. Turning around, he saw the virgin woman, whose mind he possessed, slumped up against a wall unconcious. And looking up from her, he saw the witch looking at him, with all white eyes and an outstrecthed hand that seemed to radiate with power.

Before another grin could part his lips, he suddenly saw lights growing brightly around himself. Chancing a glance down he saw a huge red and orange glowing pentagram under his feet.

"No!" he yelled, as he remembered the spell. There was no way he was going back to being dormant.

* * *

Angel immediately ran down the dark corridors of the hospital, as he sensed dark magic and heard the sounds of a battle. Turning a corner a blinding golden light filled his eyes, nearly knocking him back. Putting a hand up, to shield his face, he saw Alucard standing in the middle of a large glowing pentagram.

Seeing that he was about to walk out of it, he thought back to what Travers had told them. 'No living thing can survive in the circle of the spell.'

'But, I'm not alive so what will it do to me?' Angel thought to himself. Not knowing the sacrifice that he was going to make, he ran forward into the fray.

* * *

"You stupid witch!" Alucard growled towards Cordelia as he started to forcibly walk through the pentagrams barrier of magic. She was pumping so much power into the spell, that her nose started to bleed, even as she mumbled some romanian and latin mixed incantations. "Did you really think that you could defeat me?"

"Not without a little help." Angel said as he emerged in the pentagram with him, putting him in a full nelson hold.

"Angel!" Cordy yelled, as she saw what he was doing. What he was about to sacrifice.

"Don't worry about me lass." Angel said feeling his strength drain from him, because of the spell. He knew the same thing was happening to the dark count, because he should have thrown him off by now. "Just finish this."

With a grimace on her face, she watched as Angel's skin started to turn to ash and burn away.

"No...nooooo!" Alucard yelled as he felt his life...his power draining from him.

Hearing someone yell roused Xander out of his unconciousness. Opening his blood stained eyes, he looked around to see Angel holding onto Alucard from behind. Shaking his head to clear the haze out of his mind, he saw that Angel was slowly burning away.

With trembling hands he reached up and yanked both daggers out of his shoulders. Pitching forward, he managed to catch himself before he could hit the ground. Using the last of his strength, he lunged forward and tackled Angel, just as Cordelia finished the spell.

With an echoing scream a brilliant light shot up around Alucard, that took his power and left nothing but a mummified corpse in it's wake. As the power of Cordelia's spell finally dissappated, the pentagram faded and went inside of Alucard's dead hands and the spiritual wards fell to the floor.

"Is everything alright?" Giles asked as he ducked his head out of Xander's room. As the group looked up at him, they all let out a groan in unison, before slumping to the floor in exhaustion.

The Next Day

The Langham Hotel

Cordelia sat on her bed, doing Jenice's hair, of whom sat between her legs. After they had taken Alucard's body to Westbury they had all returned back to the hotel to relax. Before she could even try to do a healing spell on Xander, most of his wounds had already healed by themself. By the way he explained it, he now had an almost Wolverine type healing factor. Whatever that meant.

Brushing another strand of Jenice's silky black hair, Cordy suddenly thought about what she had seen last night. Putting the brush down for a moment, she looked down at the younger girl...no woman and let out a soft sigh.

"So how long have you hated me?"

"What?" Jenice asked, wide eyed as she looked up at her. "I don't..."

"I saw how you looked at me last night and that wasn't because of the spell." Cordy started. "Believe me I've given enough people that look before in my life to know the difference. So spill."

"I...I it's because you took my birth right." she finally confessed. "Most of my family is gone and all I thought I would have was that and my Bunica gave it to you. I... I just don't understand."

"I spoke to her." Cordelia replied with a sad smile. "Your grandma, I mean. She wanted me to tell you to be strong."

"But..."

"She said that there was something special about me." Cordy said cutting her off. As if she didn't already know she was special. "She said I was born to hold onto power that was important. But believe me Jenice someday soon this power that I have will be your's." sitting in a comfortable silence Cordelia picked the brush up and started back on her hair. After a few seconds she began to hum an old romanian song.

"Where did you hear that?" Jenice asked.

"What?"

"That song you were just singing?" it was the same song her mother used to sing to her at night when she was little.

"Just aroun..." before she could complete her sentence, they both heard a bumping sound. Getting up to investigate, she went into Xander's room.

* * *

"What the hell is wrong with you, deadboy?" Xander asked as he pushed Angel hard into the dresser, making a slight bumping noise. "Do you even know what you could've done?"

"What's going on?" Cordelia asked as she entered the room.

"It's about what Angel did last night." Xander replied. "If he had've died last night Buffy would have died and our timeline would've been messed up."

"Buffy." Cordelia repeated hanging her head down low. Everything always came down to Buffy.

"Cordy...I'm glad you're here." Xander said nervously. "I needed to talk to you about something. Alone." catching the hint, without a word Angel walked out of the room. "I wanted to talk to you about something else that happened last night."

"Well what is it?" she asked, suddenly defensive. "I have to finish Jenice's hair before I get some sleep."

"Well... you see.."

"Spit it out." she said annoyed, as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"When I fell unconcious last night...I kept thinking about this girl..."

"Was it Buffy again?" she asked. "If so I don't want to hear it." she said in a huff as she turned around to leave out of the room, only for him to grab her arm.

"No, the only girl I could think about was you." he replied, spinning her around. "Part of my life flashed before my eyes and I realized a couple of things."

"Wha..."

"I realized that you're the only one in my life who ever believed in me. Well when we came on this trip with me anyway. You believed in me and you needed me thoughout this whole journey." he started as he pulled her close. "The second thing I realized was that I can either live the rest of my life with a fantasy of Buffy wanting me or I can finally move on."

"Xander what are you saying?" Cordelia asked.

"I'm saying that I love you Cordelia Chase. I love you." with that said, he leaned down, his still bruised and bandaged body pressing up against her, as he kissed her softly and then more passionately on the lips. She resisted him for a moment but finally fell into his embrace and kissed him back.

On the other side of the door Angel and Jenice smiled at each other.

"It's about time those two got together." Angel replied, rubbing his chin. "I was beginning to worry about the boy."

"Maybe now life will be a little better." Jenice mused. "So what do you think is gonna happen to Alucard?"

"He's going to burn in hell I hope."

Somewhere in England

One Hundred Years Later

A young blonde haired girl, of about fourteen named Integra crawled though a dark air vent, trying to get away from her uncle. On his death bed her father had told her that when he died, that she would take charge of the family organization. And that's when all hell broke loose. Jealous of the power she was gaining, her uncle vowed and was now trying to kill her.

Remembering something else her father told her, she jumped out of the vent and ran down a series of corridors trying to make it to the place her father spoke of. Upon spotting her turning a corner two guards along with her uncle Richard, who was taunting her, gave chase. Making it to the underground dungeon she saw a prison door covered with gore ahead of her. Even though she was frietghened to go in, one look at her uncle with a gun in his hand, made up her mind for her.

"My beautiful Integra. My beautiful niece." Richard said with an insane chuckle.

"Uncle Richard why are you doing this?" she asked. "Don't you love..." before she could say the rest he shot her in the arm, sending up dark rivuts of blood. Luckily for her however it was just a flesh wound.

"This is beyond love Integra." he informed her. "This is about control."

After stepping further into the room her uncle and the two guards saw a dead body leaning up, against the wall with the upper part of his body being held back with long black belts. Not paying much attention to it, he looked at his niece and smiled.

"Goodbye niece." Richard said as he pointed the gun at her forehead, as she clutched her arm after feeling a surge of pain shooting through it. "Atleast now you'll have company on your way to hell." As he said that everybody then heard something move. "W... what was that noise?" he asked.

"It was the dead body sir. I think it moved." one of his guards informed him.

Looking back towards it, they watched in awe as its tongue rolled out of it's mouth several inches and licked Integra's blood off the ground, before looking up at them with red eyes.

"What the...?"

With an evil grin the body ripped off its restraints, freeing itself. Sniffing the air it ran forward and savagely tore off one of the guards arms then his head. Giving orders to his last man, the dead body rose up and killed the last guard before ripping off one of Richards arms.

Hearing someone crying, the body looked down from his carnage and saw Integra, scared to death hiding in the shadows against a wall. Seeing it coming towards her, she picked up a fallen gun and aimed it at his chest.

"D...don't come any closer." she ordered.

"Are you the one who awakened me?" He asked of her. "Your blood was the first I've tasted in over 100 years. So tasty...so tasty." he said as Integra shot him in the chest. Quickly regenerating he leaned down and put his face to hers.

"I am the head of the Helsing Organization, Integra Helsing!" she yelled out, as he seemed to lick his lips, even as she aimed her gun to him again.

'Helsing?' the demon thought to himself. 'But her blood isn't of Xan Helsing's order. They must have built an organization around what he's done. But this little one is now the leader?'

"But I'm the rightful owner of Helsing!" Richard whined out as he finally came back into the realm of conciousness.

"You don't have the blood of a leader." the vampire replied, as he looked back at Integra.

"What is your name?" Integra asked as she looked at her uncle, then back at the figure.

"Alucard. That is what my first master called me." Alucard answerd as he stared back at Integra's uncle. He then jumped across the room and attacked Richard and bit deeply into his neck, killing him. As the pentagram symbols on his hands started to glow red, he looked back at Integra. "What will you have me do now, Lady Helsing?" 'But I will serve her...for now.'

A/N Integra isn't related to Xander and Vlad will make another appearance in this fic. And to those who wondered how Alucard got his symbols back on his hands well Cordy was doing two spells at once. That's why I said she was mixing the Romanian tongue with Latin.

A/N 2 When I started to write Alucard I was originally going to kill off Angel and have Alucard take his place. I decided against it because Alucard is too much of a powerful personality and soon everything would have eventually been about him. But I hope you guys liked this nonetheless.

TBC...

Please Review...


	12. Chapter 11 The Beginning Of The End pt1

A/N This chapter takes place a week after chapter 10. Thanks for the review Seraphwalker. Some of your questions will be answered in the next couple of chapters.

Chapter 11

The Beginning Of The End pt.1

The Watcher's Council Roof

Night

Unforgiving rain and harsh winds swept through London as lightning cast the city in a brilliant white glow. As it faded, the rain turned into fire and the sounds of screams could be heard, echoing throughout the night.

"Did you really think that you could stop this, Xan Helsing?" Balthazar asked, as he picked Xander up by the neck, taking him off of his feet. Balthazar now stood in his final form with a grotesque face, grey veiny skin, pointed ears, and large spear tipped bat wings.

"I...I gave it some thought." Xander replied with a wince as blood dripped out of his mouth.

"Foolish boy." Balthazar said with a sinister chuckle. "A jester to the end. And that's what this is boy. The end." he said as he looked down and saw Cordelia and Vlad laying on the roof top groaning in pain. Grinning at their effort to stand, he looked down at the dead Watcher's that layed there in patterns, even as the sky opened up and small circles of light appeared, all quickly growing. "Say goodbye to everything you ever knew."

"Goodbye." Xander said, as he lifted up his revolver and opened fire.

A Day Before

Early Morning

Cordelia wrapped her arms tightly around Xander's waist, as they slowly galloped along the country side on Buffy. It had been nearly a week since they had, had any demon problems or any adventure and they wanted to take advantage of it. And what better way to do it, then having a picnic. One in which Jenice and Angel insisted that they take alone.

Picking a spot under a large tree, Xander dismounted his horse before helping Cordelia down with her basket.

"This was a nice idea wasn't it?" Cordelia asked as they unfolded a blanket from the basket together before laying it under the shade of the tree. "I can't remember a time in Sunnydale where we could do this."

"I know what you mean." Xander replied as he took an apple out of their basket and fed it to Buffy, before taking off his coat and hat.

"Are you okay?" she asked, as they both sat down and gathered some food. "You haven't said much to me this morning."

"I've...i've just been thinking about some stuff." he replied, as she stared at him. Looking up at her, he saw that she really wanted to know what he was thinking. Clearing his throat he looked up at her again and gave her a smile. "Do you promise not to get mad at what I'm about to say?"

"Oh just spit it out." Cordelia said making a few sandwiches. "It can't be that bad."

"I was thinking that we should stay here together in this time." he said as Cordelia paused, mid sandwich making, and looked up at him wide eyed. Seeing her startled expression, he scooted from one end of the blanket over to her. "I'm serious Cordy and I didn't mean to startle you by saying this. But...but all my life I always felt out of place in SunnyD, like I didn't belong. Especially when Buffy came into our lives."

His horse then gave a grunt of dissapproval at hearing her name, making Xander slightly smile.

"Sorry girl, I wasn't talking about you." he said as he looked back at Cordelia. "But here, I feel like I belong, like I'm needed. Anyway...it...it was just a passing thought. I know you want to get back to our time and too a salon or something." he said looking down sadly.

"Actually, I was thinking the same thing." Cordy replied handing him a sandwich. "For the first time in my life I didn't know how to say something to you. But in the last couple of months we've been here, I've been thinking what would it be like for us to stay here."

"But the future..."

"Should be alright without us. And I feel the same way you do." she started. "I never told anyone this but I've always felt out of place in our time too. That's part of the reason why I guess I associated myself with the popular crowd... just, just to feel important. But here I can hang out with you losers without a worry."

"Hey." Xander said playfully.

"I mean look at this place." she went on, as she looked out to the beautiful green countryside. "Why would we leave this place to go back to Sunnydale anyway?"

"But what are we gonna do here?" Xander questioned. "We don't have any skills for this time."

"Speak for yourself dweeb." she said as she put a dainty hand to her forehead. "Because I'm going to be an aspiring actress and I'll move to either new york or Hollywood whenever they get started." she said having another thought. "Oh, I know what the stock is gonna be like for the future too. I'll be set for life."

"Um Cordelia." Xander said with his arms crossed over his chest. "What exactly will I be doing in this little fantasy of yours?"

"You and Angel are gonna have your own detective agency." she said, coming out of her thoughts.

"A detective agency?" he had never thought to do something like that.

"Yeah, you could take on all those weird cases that everybody is afraid to take on." she said as if it were obvious for him to take on that job. "Oooo and then you can tell me about the cases you have and I can write a book about it. We'll be rich and when we get married we can move back here and retire."

'When we get married.' he thought to himself, as he froze that image of himself getting married to her in his mind.

"What are you smiling about?" she asked as she looked over at him to see a big lopsided grin plastered on his face.

"Just that I'm about to ask you too..." he was cut off as a knife suddenly embedded itself into the tree behind him. Looking up from it, they looked around but didn't see anyone.

"What the hell is going on?" Cordy asked as Xander yanked the knife out of the tree trunk. Suddenly dozens of black robed demons appeared out of nowhere. They couldn't see their faces because of the robes but Xander saw that they were demons because of their solid black hands.

Immediately going to his long coat, Xander then remembered that he didn't bring any of his weapons. He wanted him and Cordy to have a nice normal day without interruption.

'So much for that.' he thought to himself as he and Cordelia got into a fighting stance. Giving her a nod they both ran to engage their enemies.

Xander ducked a swipe from one demon, then straightened up and blocked the backswing of its fist whilst simultaneously kicking away another. Turning he chopped the first one in the stomach, ducked a punch, and attempted to retaliate with a ducked spin-kick. His final attack before moving onto another one was an elbow strike.

Simultaneously, Cordelia spun and punched a cloaked demon in the gut, then spin-kicked it away. She ducked, kicked at and missed another, then fell through with a more successful blow. She kicked at another, who ducked and briefly grabbed her leg. She lashed out at a second, and then the first; but it restrained her foot, allowing the other demon a free kick. Taking the blunt of the attack, she fell down to the ground hard.

"Man these guys are tough." Xander said as he ran up to her and helped her back to her feet.

"Tell me about it." Cordy replied as she wiped at her mouth.

"You sit this one out." he said stepping in front of her. "I'm gonna have a little fun." as he ran forward a huge gust of wind whipped past him that knocked down about six of the unknown demons. Looking back at her, he saw a small smile creep onto her lips.

"What?" she asked as she hunched up her shoulders.

Shaking his head Xander immediately jumped into action, fighting off the demons with a flurry of quick blows. Ducking under an outstreched arm he spun around it and kicked it in the small of the back. Going into a sweeping kick he took down another one that ran up beside him. Doing a split that the cheerleading team would be proud of, he narrowly missed a blade that flew over his head. Jumping back up, he let out a guttural growl before pouncing on another group of demons.

* * *

Another cloaked figure, who had been watching behind a group of bushes wasn't surprised to see Xander and Cordelia fighting so well. He expected it. He needed it. With a smile on his face he stepped back and totally out of sight.

"Soon witch... oh so very soon."

* * *

Finishing off his attack, Xander stood in a fighting stance even as the demons fell to the ground and dissappeared in a demonic fire.

"What was that all about?" Cordy asked as she walked up behind him. Before he answered, they both heard a soft boom, followed by a sprinkle of rain.

"I don't know." he answered as the rain started to pour down heavier. "But let's get back to the hotel." gathering up their things, Xander got Buffy and they rode off towards home.

* * *

"So how was your time alone?" Jenice asked as Cordelia and Xander entered the room both soaking wet. Cordelia just gave her a 'how the hell do you think look', before walking into the other room to get cleaned up.

"We got attacked by some demons." Xander said tossing his wet hat to the floor. "And then it started raining."

"Are you two okay?"

"Just peachy." Cordelia said as she walked back into the room. "After I take a bath, I think me and Xander have something important to talk to you and Angel about."

"What is it?"

"We'll tell you once Angel gets up tonight." Xander said as his ears picked up something in the distance.

"What is it?" Cordelia asked as she saw the expression on Xander's face.

"What's that noise?" Angel asked as he walked out of the other room. It sounded like some kind of flapping and after a few seconds Jenice and Cordelia heard it too.

Suddenly the entire outside wall smashed to pieces, exposing them to the outside. Angel and Jenice jumped up in alarm as sunlight streamed into the room. Just as they were about to ask each other what was going on a bat winged demon, with the face only a mother could love appeared in the window, which was now just a broken frame with shards of glass hanging in it.

Instead of any of them reaching for weapons, they could only watch in awe as the demon glided into the room and stood before them.

"Witch." it addressed Cordelia as it looked at her. "I told you that we would meet again."

"B...Balthazar?" she replied as she took a step back, causing him to smile at her.

"I'm glad that you remember me." he said, talking casually. "But don't be alarmed, I'm only here to deliver a message. The end is near and on top of the owls tower a new future will arise. Figure that out by tomorrow night and meet me there." he said as he spread his wings out. As the wind caught it, he was yanked back outside where he started to flap his wings. "You have to be there to see the new dawning of my future."

Silently watching as he flew away, Cordy and Xander looked over at each other, seemingly thinking the same thing.

"We have to go and see Giles."

The Second Circle

Sametime

'The owl's tower?' Vlad thought to himself as he sat on his father's throne, looking through a ball of light at Balthazar talking to the fang gang. He had been watching them all week and he had found out that they were against Balthazar as much as he was. 'Of course.' figuring it out, he flapped his wings out and flew out of the dark cavern.

Giles Residence

Later That Day

"And...and you're sure that Balthazar said that?" Giles asked as he walked into the room carrying a silver platter of tea and cookies.

"Yeah." Cordy replied as she took a cookie off the platter and bit into it. "You have any idea what he meant?"

"Well in many cultures an owl is a symbol of wisdom." he replied as he sat down in his chair. "But as for the tower I have no earthly idea as to what he's referring to."

"We only have a day to figure it out." Xander said with a grimace at what he was going to suggest. "Maybe we should do some research and see if we can figure it out."

"Marvelous idea." Giles replied, brightening up as he stood to his feet and went to his bookshelf. "I have just the research material we can start on."

Feeling a pair of eyes on himself, Xander turned around and saw Cordelia glaring at him.

"What?"

"Idiot." she replied. She always hated Giles' research sessions.

Waiting until everyone had fallen asleep after hours of researching, Sara waited until the vampire had fallen asleep before making her move. Picking up a stake, she slowly stalked over to him in a far corner and raised her weapon up high, bringing it down fast.

Moments before it connected to his chest, Angel's eyes snapped open and he caught her arm. Weakly struggling against his superior strengh, tears flowed down her cheeks as he finally let her arm go.

"Just die damn you." she cursed the vampire in a whisper, so she wouldn't wake up the others.

"I'm already dead, lass." he replied back.

"You have the others fooled into believing that you're good but, I'll prove them wrong."

"Is everything alright?" Giles asked, as he woke up and looked in their direction.

"Yes sir." Sara said with a glare towards Angel as she walked away from him and back into her room.

"Oh man how long have we been out?" Xander asked as he woke up and wiped away a strand of drool on his chin.

"It's noon." Giles said as the others woke up. "We've been up all night and I'm scared to say but our efforts were unfruitful."

"Let's go back to the hotel." Cordy suggested as she closed her book and stood to her feet.

"What's left of it anyway." Xander said standing up. "We're just lucky that the hotel owner said that it was a structual problem with the building and we don't have to pay for it."

"Giles we'll be back later on today." Cordelia said as Angel got up and wrapped a blanket around himself.

"Yes of course. Maybe then I'll have some useful information."

As the fang gang walked to the cart where Buffy was, Cordelia and Angel suddenly felt a strange tingling of magic in the air. Before they could say anything about it a portal opened above them and they were all sucked inside.

As the portal opened up they fell to the ground of a massive pit, in a heap of arm's and legs.

"Where are we?" Jenice groaned as she stood to her feet.

"Hell." Angel answered as he took a look around. The stench of dead demons and the wailing of the dead, mostly gave it away.

"The second circle of it actually." a voice said behind them. Turning they saw Vlad sitting down in a throne like chair. Running forward, Xander hit an invisible wall of electricity that shocked him and threw him forcibly down to the ground. "I wouldn't recommend you doing that again."

"What the hell do you want?" he asked as Cordelia and Angel helped him to his feet.

"The same thing you do." Vlad answered as he stood to his feet. "To kill Balthazar."

"And why should we trust you?" Cordy asked as she stood in front of Xander. "Especially after what you did to us last week with Alucard?"

"Believe me after what Balthazar did to me, I want him dead just as much as you do. Besides, I know where he's going to be and what he's planning to do."

"Like Cordy said why should we trust you?"

"What other option do you have Xan Helsing?" he asked. Not getting an answer he went on with what he was about to say. "Now this is what he's planning on doing. Tonight, he's going to merge all of the dimensions into one. If you think this is hell you haven't seen nothing yet."

"Damn." Xander said aloud, as he nervously started to pace around.

"Am, I to assume that, that's a yes?" Vlad asked. "Will you join me in getting rid of Balthazar?"

"It's not like we have much of a choice then." Xander said looking at his friends.

"Be warned though Helsing." Vlad said taking the smile off of his face. "As soon as Balthazar is dead our truce will be over and we'll finish the battle we started."

"Deal."

The Watcher's Council

"Sir we just got more reports from America, China, and Instanbul." a Watcher said as he handed a stack of papers to Travers in his conference room.

"Not that I mind but I'm still curious as to who exactly is killing all these demons." Travers replied as he leaned back in his chair.

"Me..." he and all the other Watcher's in the room heard a raspy voice say. Following the voice that echoed in the room, Travers looked up and saw a pair of glowing red eyes. Before he could let out a scream the demon let go of the ceiling, dropped down on the table and started to kill all the Watcher's assembled.

Even Later That Night

As soon as Vlad let them out of the hell dimension, they had immediately went to Giles' place and told him what was going on. They couldn't believe that they had missed such an obvious clue. Who was more wise then the Watchers? After excepting Vlad's help, they gathered as many weapons as possible and headed for the Watcher's Council.

"The Watcher's Council building is further down this street." Giles said as he led the group. Stopping he saw that Cordelia stopped next to a jewelry store and was looking in the window. And as Xander went over to her he looked in and saw that a beautiful ring was on a display inside the shop window. "Please don't dawdle children."

"I wish I could afford that." Cordy whispered over to Xander. "It's beautiful."

"Just catch up with the others." Xander said taking a few steps back. "I'll be right behind you." after, doing what he asked Cordelia caught up with the others and just like he promised he came running up behind her just as they walked towards the building.

"What is that smell?" Jenice asked as they opened the front door to the Council building.

"It's blood." Vlad, now in human form, replied as Angel and Xander shared a look. Walking further in, they all heard a groan coming from behind the receptionist's counter. Looking behind it, they saw a woman bleeding from a large wound in her stomach.

"Oh my God." Cordelia said as they helped the woman up. "What happened?"

"The...the beast..." she barely managed to get out as she trembled with fear, barely holding onto life. "It's killing us all."

"Balthazar, his stench reeks in this building." Vlad said as he let out a growl deep in his throat. "He's already on the roof, come on let's go!"

"Giles. You, Sara, and Jenice search for survivors and get them out of the building." Xander said as he hurried to catch up with the others, who were running for the stairs.

"Xander wait!" Jenice called after him. "I deserve to fight along side you."

"You're my back up plan." Xander said whispering into her ear so the others wouldn't hear. He really had a bad feeling that he wouldn't see her again. "If we fail to stop Balthazar from opening up portals in different dimensions and merging them into ours, then I need you to lead the second front to stop him. Gather everybody you can, all of London if you have too."

"Xander come on!" Cordelia yelled down to him, from the steps leading to the roof.

"Goodbye." Xander said with a sad smile as he kissed Jenice on the forehead. Giving her one final look, as if it would be his last time seeing her, he ran to catch up with the others.

Thinking about the responsibility Xander had layed on her shoulders if he failed, Jenice looked suddenly determined and walked over to help Giles and Sara.

* * *

Angel, Cordelia, Vlad, and Xander walked up the last steps of the roof access and out the entrance armed and ready to fight, but when they saw Balthazar in the distance, they stopped dead in their tracks. Still hulking and intimidating even when compared to Xander and his gang, Balthazar chuckled at the sight of them. He was standing inside a square made from over ten bodies of dead Watcher's that had been laid out in formation. And at the center of the square, he held a dead man in the air, dangling him by the foot. The way the body hanged, it formed sort of an "X" shape.

"It's about time you all showed up." Balthazar said as he held up the body a little higher. "Now let the true massacre begin."

TBC...

Please Review


	13. Chapter 12 The Beginning Of The End pt2

Chapter 12

The Beginning Of The End pt.2

"How many Watcher's did you manage to find?" Giles asked as Jenice and Sara walked back into the lobby area. He was still busy patching up, Molly the receptionist's wounds, with some bandages he had found and wasn't able to help them in their search.

"At least twenty still alive and another five severely wounded." Jenice answered.

'25?' Giles thought to himself. The Council was fully staffed with over a hundred Watcher's at all times and out of all of them only... 'My word.'

"And I need you to follow me Mr. Giles." Sara said taking him by the hand. "I found Mr. Travers and he isn't doing well."

"Jenice gather the Watchers that are...still alive and get them to help you get the one's that are wounded out of here." Giles said as he finished bandaging up Molly. "I must speak with Traver's and I'll join you shortly."

Going their seperate directions, Giles followed Sara until they reached the main conference room. As he did so, he had to pinch the bridge of his nose at the awful smell of blood, shit, and burnt flesh. Walking all the way in the room, he saw blood covering a far wall and Travers laying on the floor in a pool of his own blood, slightly trembling.

"Good lord." Giles said, running over to him. "Sir..."

"I...I... don't have alot of time..."

"You'll be alright sir, I have some people..."

"I'm dying you pillock." Travers stopped his attempt at sucking up. "I...I need you to guide the Council Theodore...you must make sure they all train."

"I will sir." Giles said, holding onto the man's shoulder.

"And...and please Theodore tell my son..." not being able to finish his sentence, Travers eyes rolled up in the back of his head as he took his final breath and died.

"Bloody hell." Giles said as he reached down and closed the man's eyes. Looking around the darkened room he also saw the dead body of Thomas Wyndam-Pryce and a few other of his colleagues. He never really cared for the man, but he respected him because he was a fellow Watcher. Reaching over he closed his eyes as well. "Sara do get some blanket's so we..." looking around he saw that his young charge had left the room. "Sara...?"

* * *

Balthazar watched Xander and his gang standing at the entrance of the rooftop with a smile on his face. As it widened he threw the man he was holding across the room before focusing his attention back on them.

"I'm glad you're all here to witness my glory..."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah..." Xander said with a dramatic roll of his eyes. 'God I hate when the bad guy makes all these speeches.' "Angel let's do this like we planned. Everybody let's move." he said as they spread out in different directions.

Angel then hoisted his sword and ran toward Balthazar, Vlad flanking him on the right, while Xander and Cordelia were on the left of them loading their crossbows with special arrows. Angel swung his sword at the demon, but it seemingly had no effect. When the sword contacted his body, there was a pinging sound, but it wouldn't cut or penetrate the skin. Frustrated Angel continued to try using the sword on him, but to no avail. Annoyed, Balthazar pimp slapped the sword out of Angel's hand and threw the vampire across the room where he collided with a stone column, shattering it to pieces.

With a grunt Vlad hurled his battleaxe at him, but Balthazar caught it easily, bending the blade in half and throwing it back at him. Barely dodging the attack, Vlad watched as Angel recovered from his fall, stood to his feet, whipped open his duster and twirled two smaller axes in his hands. Running up to the demon god Angel swung them at the winged demon's legs, arms, and head - but to his dismay they didn't hurt him at all.

Xander and Cordelia shot more arrows from their crossbows at him, but the hell god deflected them with his forearm, changing their trajectory such that the arrows hit Angel instead. With a scream Angel doubled over in pain as one arrow landed in his gut and the other in his upper right shoulder.

"These special arrows you and Jenice made aren't working." Xander commented to Cordelia.

"No shit Sherlock." she replied as the demon looked around at them all.

Seeing that Xan Helsing and the witch were reloading their crossbows Balthazar picked up Angel's body and threw it at them, knocking them to the ground. Ignoring his allies Vlad ran over to him with Angel's blessed sword, hacking mightily at its head, again to no avail.

"You'll pay for what you've done to my father." Vlad said as he started to change back into his demon form.

"I think not." Balthazar replied, grabbing the sword with a taloned hand. "I think I'll make you join him." with that said Balthazar grabbed Vlad by the throat and threw him the length of the roof.

"I've had enough of this." Xander said as he reached both hands inside his coat, cross drawing the both of his revolvers.

He then shot them, two at a time, at Balthazar's chest and head with little effect. Seeing that they were merely bouncing off of his skin he threw them down, and reached for his shotgun strapped on his back. Cocking the slide back, he fired at the demon's chest, causing it to flinch a bit, but the shots didn't appear to damage it. He fired again at his face, causing him to fall down and land on his knees. Seeing that it did a bit of damage he aimed the shotgun at his face at close range, but Balthazar just looked up and smiled at him, playing possum. Standing up, he let out a grunt and pushed the shotgun away before hurling Xander across the room and chuckling as he did so.

"You might want to hold your laughter chuckles." Angel said as he pulled the arrow out of his shoulder. "This fight's not over yet. We're just getting started."

With that Angel lunged at the demon king, engaging him in hand-to-hand combat. They exchanged punches, when suddenly the demon punched Angel so hard, it sent him backwards through the air in a back flip. Twisting in mid-air Angel landed on his feet, in full vamp face now, making Balthazar groan. With a growl Angel jumped twenty feet landing back in front of him. They fist-fought again, but Angel finally managed to knock him down to his knees with a hard punch.

Activating a wrist stake launcher, a dagger dropped down under his sleeve and he pointed it at the demon's strange black eyes. It's eyes widened, and Angel hesitated, unable to plunge the dagger into his eyes because Balthazar had a grip on Angel's arm now. The tables had then turned as Balthazar stabbed Angel in the right shoulder with the dagger, dangerously close to his neck. Angel roared in agony, blood dribbling down his mouth, as he involuntarily reverted back to his human face.

"You really joined the wrong side." Balthazar commented as he took Angel and hurled him out into the city, well beyond the edge of the building they were on.

"Angel no!" Cordelia yelled as she stood to her feet.

"Oh yes." Balthazar replied as his massive wings fluttered a bit. "Now it's your turn. I think I'll start with sucking the marrow out of your bones."

Dropping her hands to her side, Cordelia closed her eyes and when she opened them they turned a stark white. Radiating with power, unforgiving rain and harsh wind swept through London as screams could be heard from the people below. As the ground cracked below her feet, Cordelia crouched down low and let blue power gather in the palm of her hands, even as the sky started to light up with fire.

Mumbling a spell under her breath, she opened the palm of her hands up wider and released a long stream of energy that hit Balthazar head on. As the explosion ripped through the building, sending up plums of smoke, he still stood there as if a mere breeze had hit his body.

"Was that the best you had witch?" Balthazar asked he brushed a taloned hand over his chest. "And to believe I actually wanted that pathetic power..."

He was cut off as Vlad lunged out of the smoke, hitting him square on the jaw. Stumbling back, he followed up with a kick to his stomach and a strong punch to his chest. Going for another kick, Balthazar grabbed his leg and threw him away like a rag doll.

"I...I underestimated you witch." Balthazar said, now breathing hard as he addressed Cordelia. "But your efforts are still not enough."

As she looked panicked he kneeled on one knee, punching the floor at the center of his human square, sending a trail of fire out along the floor in the shape of an ancient fire symbol. A shock wave emanated from the area, knocking everyone off of their feet. Cordelia was thrown back, so hard on a glass skylight that she nearly fell through it. Vlad and Xander were knocked down, but still remained on the rooftop. The fire was tall now, taller than the demon and as Xander sat up, he had time to see the demon king fly straight up into the sky, riding the fire that he created.

With a wince Xander stood up and walked over to Cordelia who had just regained conciousness.

"Oh God, Xander..." she started as they both saw the lights of the first portal opening. And every second it was growing larger.

As several more opened up one of London's main streets was hit with a huge bolt of lightning, that opened an enormous hole in the middle of it. The people who were standing there screamed and then ran away. Just as the street was hit a large building was struck by lightning and burned to a shell in an instant, only to be replaced by weird demon creatures in the walls of a demonic structured building, screaming in pain.

As Angel was lying on the ground, in the street somewhere in the city, he rolled over, still in pain and bloody from the encounter with Balthazar. Weakly, he reached over to pull the implement out of his shoulder, wincing with the effort. He convulsed in pain while looking at the sky and had to roll aside as a crack appeared in the ground he was lying on. Looking past that he saw that the sky was growing lighter as the sun tried to rise.

* * *

Hearing a loud flapping of wings, Xander looked up in time to be hit by a loud gust of wind that threw everyone off their feet. Even Vlad, who flew back so hard that he was impaled through the gut by a metal pipe that frameworked the building. As Balthazar landed back on the roof, his wings folded over his chest, as he lightly walked through the dead bodies of those fallen.

"Did you really think that you could stop this, Xan Helsing?" Balthazar asked, as he reached down and picked Xander up by the neck, taking him off of his feet. Balthazar now stood in his final form with a grotesque face, grey veiny skin, pointed ears, and large spear tipped bat wings.

"I...I gave it some thought." Xander replied with a wince as blood dripped out of his mouth.

"Foolish boy." Balthazar said with a sinister chuckle. "A jester to the end. And that's what this is boy. The end." he said as he looked down and saw Cordelia and Vlad laying on the roof top groaning in pain. Grinning at their effort to stand, he looked down at the dead Watcher's that layed there in patterns, even as the sky opened up and small circles of light appeared, all quickly growing. "Say goodbye to everything you ever knew."

"Goodbye." Xander said, as he lifted up his revolver and opened fire. Angered at being shot Balthazar slapped the revolver out of Xander's hand hard, making it fall into a portal.

"Foolish boy." Balthazar said with a sinister chuckle. "A jester to the end. And that's what this is boy. The end." he said as he looked down and saw Cordelia and Vlad laying on the roof top groaning in pain. Grinning at their effort to stand, he looked down at the dead Watcher's that layed there in patterns, even as the sky opened up and small circles of light appeared, all quickly growing. "Say goodbye to everything you ever knew."

"Goodbye." Xander said, as he lifted up his revolver and opened fire. Angered at being shot Balthazar slapped the revolver out of Xander's hand hard, making it fall into a portal.

With a grin Balthazar lifted up a hand to deal the final crushing blow, but was immediately punched hard on the face. Turning, his eyes glowing red, he saw Vlad standing there with blood dripping out of his chest wound.

"So boy." Balthazar started as he threw Xander aside like a rag doll. "Are you ready to join your father?"

Not giving the little demon a chance to respond Balthazar rushed him, lunge punching for his face. At the last possible moment, Vlad side stepped making Balthazar's arm go up to his elbow through a wall Vlad was standing in front of, ripping the fist to shreds. As Balthazar pulled his mangled hand out and looked at it, his fury grew.

"You see mighty demon king." Vlad said with a wince as he held onto his aching ribs. "Even you bleed."

Enraged Balthazar charged again with his good hand. As Vlad dodged again, his fist crumbled against the side of another brick wall. Rearing his head back, he let loose an agonized scream. Turning Vlad delivered a short undercut to his stomach, making him double over in pain. Pressing his advantage he hit Balthazar on the back of the neck with an elbow, sending him to his knees. Pulling his head up by a horn, Vlad was about to deliver a death blow until the demon king smiled up at him.

"I was just toying with you." he said as he slapped Vlad hard on the face, sending him flying towards a wall, where he crumbled next to, unsconcious. With a sinister chuckle, Balthazar stood to his feet, his wounds already healed, so he could finish the job.

Laying on the ground half unconscious, Xander's eyes suddenly fluttered open. Letting out a groan he sat up and watched as Balthazar slowly stalked towards the downed Vlad. Getting to his hands and knees, he stood up and picked up his fallen revolver.

"Hey...hey!" Xander managed to yell out. "You didn't forget about me did ya?"

Looking down at Vlad and then back at Xander, Balthazar made up his mind and his face warped with rage. Turning he attacked Xander, fists flying at furious speed, blows and counters, that Xander barely managed to dodge. Raising his arm up to block another punch a knife-hand opened his forearm, and a kick sent him slamming back against a steel column. Stunned, Xander ducked just under a punch that crunched into the beam, making steel chunks explode like shrapnel. Taking advantage of the dust cloud of the explosion, Xander leaped into the air, delivering a neck- snapping reverse round-house.

Pressing the attack Xander went at the demon king with a roundhouse kick followed by a flurry of punches to its chest. Balthazar staggered back a step but the blows didn't hurt it at all.

'What is it gonna take to put this guy down?' Xander thought to himself.

'Alot more then you have.' came Balthazar's telepathic reply.

With a growl, Xander poured every ounce of his preternatural strength into his blows. After another volley of punches and several roundhouse kicks to its head, the demon was still standing, unharmed. With a menacing growl, it thrusted its arm forward into Xander's chest like a massive piston, lifting him into the air and sending him flying backward a dozen feet where he crashed through a wooden crate and landed covered in debris.

With a chuckle Balthazar stalked forward and hauled Xander out of the crate's wreckage. Playing possum himself, he flipped up into the air, kicking hard into the demon's face before landing and hammering it's belly with punch after punch.

He ducked several blows and followed with one of his own but the demon managed to stop his arm in mid-swing and pounded him to his knees, before swinging him into a wall with tremendous force.

Rolling away from the wall and trying to stay conscious Xander managed to get on his knees. Admiring his will to live, Balthazar pounded him, one massive blow to the head after another, until his face was bruised and bleeding. Chuckling to himself, he brought one of its cloven hooved feet down on Xander's back, crushing him.

"And to think you were the promised one to stop me." Balthazar said as he yanked Xander to his feet. "You have know idea how..." he was cut off as Xander spit blood into its face. Enraged, it lifted him above its head and slammed him down on the floor with bone-crunching force, then kicked him across the roof.

From the shadows, Vlad shook his head in mock sympathy as Xander struggled to stand, gasping in pain. Even though Xander was his enemy, he still needed him in order to kill Balthazar. With that thought in mind, he looked down and saw Angel's blessed sword by his foot.

Xander crawled to the center of the roof, his face contorted in pain as Balthazar approached and stood over him. He realized he was about to die and he was going to face it without fear. Suddenly he heard Matier's voice in his mind one last time. Fully understanding what she was saying his eyes glowed a milky white, before he slowly reached into his overcoat.

"This is for my father!" they both heard Vlad yelled as he plunged the blessed sword, hilt deep into the demons back.

Balthazar writhed about, trying to reach the sword buried in its back as cracks started to form all along the length of his body. Taking his chance Xander jumped up, activated his clawed weapon and slammed it up through its chin and out the top of its head.

It's face glowed a bloody red and then it's whole body erupted in an explosion of energy. Radiant blood-red light pours out of his vieny body, as his screams reached a crescendo pitch. The light then came together in a coherent beam and shot out of his mouth and eyes up into the sky. It slammed up into the mysterious cloud obscuring the sun and annihilated it, sunlight instantly blazing forth, bathing the city in a golden glow.

Xander fell down, crippled on the floor, watching as the demon became petrified, before crumbling into a pile of rubble.

"Finally." Xander said exhausted. "It's..."

"No it's not." Cordelia said as she finally awoke and sat down beside him. "Look." looking up to where she was pointing, Xander saw that the portals were still open and growing rapidly.

"Damnit." Xander said as she helped him stand. "What the hell are we supposed to do now?"

"Maybe...maybe I can find out a way to stop it." Cordelia said as she slowly walked over to the human pentagram.

"And while she's doing that..." Vlad started as he quickly ran forward and punched Xander hard on the face. "We can finally end this."

Cordy got on her knees, blood dripping out of her mouth, as she looked down at the gothic pentagram.

'What the hell am I doing?' she asked herself. 'I'm not a witch.'

"Yes you are Cordelia." Matier said as her ghostly form materialized next to her. "That's why, I've given you my power."

"Matier?"

"You're special Cordelia. You were meant to be a vessel for the powers that be, but that destiny will not befall you. Jasmine will not arise."

"What are you...just tell me what to do."

"Put your hands in the pentagram and let the power I have given you flow out." as she did what she asked Cordy started to chant silently to herself, invoking powers she'd never dreamed of.

Suddenly the pentagram flared with a brilliant white light as tremendous power flowed from Cordelia into it. As the building itself started to shake from the power of the closing spell, her hair suddenly turned pure white, as if she was being cleansed. An all white aura of power then shot up into the sky and spread towards the portals.

As they hit, just as quickly as the portals opened they started to close. The spell ending Cordelia's hair turned back, black and she slumped over on the ground exhausted, leaving a smiling Matier to look down at her.

"Your journey is just beginning, little one." Matier said as she started to fade away. "Goodbye."

"It seems your woman managed to stop the portals." Vlad commented as the two locked their bladed weapons.

"That's my girl." Xander replied as he kicked off Vlad and renewed his attack. As their blades sung through the air, Vlad twirled around knocking Xander's sword out of his hand, where it went though the access door.

"Too bad you won't be around to congragulate her." Vlad said as he raised his sword up high.

"Vlad!" a disemboweled voice said in the air, as a portal opened above them. "Your time on earth is over."

"No..." Vlad yelled as he started to be sucked through the portal. His sword slipping out of his hand. "I was so close. So close..." with that being his last echoing cry, the black portal closed as Vlad was sent back to hell.

With a grin on his face, Xander sank down to his knees. They had won.

"You're not gonna cry are you?" Cordelia asked as she sank down to her knees next to him.

"No..." Xander replied, even as he wiped a tear from his eye. 'Damn she know's me too well.'

"Come on." she said, putting an arm around his back and helping him to his feet. "Let's get the hell out of here."

As they opened up the door, that would lead them back downstairs, a body suddenly fell to the ground.

"Oh my God." Cordy cried as she looked down at the dead body of Sara. By the looks of her, she had a blade wound that went through her heart. Glancing at the sword through the door, Xander figured what happened and something the Giles from his time had told him came to mind.

'With every war won, it'll always come with a loss.' and looking down at the dead teens body, Xander found that they hadn't won anything. They only loss.

TBC...

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	14. Chapter 13 A New World

A/N Fallenange15 has been bugging me to finish this story for months now, so with his help I've finally completed Xan Helsing. I hope everyone has enjoyed this story. I've also given him permission to finish a few other stories of mine so be on the look out for them.

This takes place two years after chapter 12 and Cordelia, Angel, Xander, and Jenice are still living in Romania protecting those that live there. Also for continuation I'm going with the alternate fight scene ending from the last chapter I posted with the exception that one of his revolvers is gone and Xander is now possessed with Balthazar's spirit , so be expecting him in the story, as well as a certain demon and a certain vampire.

Chapter 13

A New World

1900

A Romanian Forest

Night

A dark figure wearing a fedora styled hat and a brown overcoat ran quickly through a foreboding dark jungle at night. Ducking pass trees and jumping over stumps, his dirty old brown duster billowed behind him, as he came to a stop to take in his surroundings. Seconds later his partner ran through a passing of trees and stopped beside him.

"You picking up anything?" Xander asked, turning to his vampiric friend.

"Aye." Angel replied. Every time he turned he heard snippets of the sounds of the jungle. Picking up a familiar scent, he turned just in time to avoid being pounced on by a giant of a Lycan.

But Xander wasn't so lucky, taking the blunt of the Lycan's lunge he was knocked to the ground, where his revolver was knocked out of his hands. Bearing it's fangs it attempted to try to bite down on him only for Angel to step up in front of him with his game face and growl deep in his throat. The werewolf in turn bared its fangs at Angel and growled more loudly. Returning the growl, Angel bared his own fangs and stared the werewolf down, warning him away. Giving the vampire a curious look, the beast turned and ran off into the night.

"Are you alright?" Angel asked, extending a hand.

"Yeah." Xander replied roughly as he took the offered hand and stood to his feet. The duo had been tracking this demon for nearly two days straight, without much rest. And what made it worse was the fact that when the beast turned to a man, he was a serial killer, that would terrorize the people in the village in the day. "Now come on."

Taking off, like a shot, the two struggled to keep up with the demons trail. Coming along a small pond, Xander dipped the barrel of his gun in it, causing a huge rivot of water to shoot up into the air because of the speed of their run. Hearing a scream, they doubled their efforts to stop the beast they were after.

* * *

"Grigore do you think it wise to be here?" a beautiful woman with long brown hair asked of her boyfriend. He was about a foot taller then her, muscular, and with short black hair. "Xan Helsing told us to..."

"Xan Helsing, Xan Helsing, Xan Helsing..." Grigore mocked in a sing song voice. "I tire of hearing his name. He isn't the master of me nor my fate."

"But the monster..."

"Don't you think I would protect you?" he asked as he grabbed her around the shoulders. Looking up into his eyes she saw that he was genuinely hurt. "I'd protect you to the end of my life, Idris."

"What was that?" she suddenly asked, hearing a rustling of leaves.

"It's nothing my darling." he replied with a smile as he looked towards the bush she was looking at. A smile that disappeared when the large, hairy werewolf, that was watching them, jumped out at them and growled menacingly. With his manliness gone Grigore turned around and ran off screaming into the night, sounding very much like a little girl, and leaving his beloved behind.

As if it were amused the werewolf looked after Grigore for a moment, before turning to the girl and attacking her. Pouncing up into the air it knocked her to the ground, slashing her shoulder with it's claw in the process. Just as it was about to bite into her juicy neck, Angel suddenly appeared and pulled the monster off of the girl before fighting with it himself. Punching the thing twice Angel knocked it back a step before stabbing it in the chest with his blessed silver sword. To his dismay the creature still stood tall over him.

"Damn." was all he got to say as the thing batted him aside like a rag doll. Not having a chance to fully get back on all fours Xander ran in front of him and took out his revolver before shooting it with everything he had. Not being able to withstand the silver bullets, that ripped through his flesh, the creature fell back to the ground and immediately turned back into the shape of a powerfully built man with a bald head and dark ink black eyes.

"I guess I don't owe you one anymore, Deadboy." Xander replied with a smile as he tipped his hat up, with a still smoking barrel of his gun.

"Don't worry the night isn't over yet boy." Angel replied standing to his feet. "I'm sure I'll be savin' your arse sooner or later."

"So Migeff the last of the Werewolf Kings." Xander said aloud as he looked down at the man, once beast, darkly. The man had been responsible for so many lives that had been taken. He was truly a monster. Hearing someone crying, he snapped out of his musings and saw Angel gather a woman up in his arms. "Idris? What are you doing here? I thought I told you to stay in the village?"

"Grigore, Grigore told me to come here. He told me he would protect me." she cried the last part out.

"Grigore, I should've known." Xander said contemplating the situation. _That asshole just left her here._

"Come on lass, I'll take you home." Angel said as he turned to see Xander staring down at the body. "Aren't you coming?"

"Yeah...yeah, I'll be right behind you." he replied not looking up. "I'm gonna hide this body first. We'll bury it later."

"Aye. I'll see you back at camp then." Angel replied, before turning and walking off. Crotching down, inspecting the body closer he suddenly hovered a hand over the man's chest before quickly standing to his feet in an attempt to walk away.

_"Do it!" _a dark voice shouted in his head.

"No, I've had enough of this sick game." Xander whispered. "I'm not going to..."

_"Do what I say boy. You know the price of disobeying me." _Xander was about to joke about a voice being so scary, but then he remembered what happened a few months ago when he had woken up and saw that he had a gun pointed at Cordelia's head. Not knowing what was going on, he tried to put the gun down only for Balthazar's voice to talk in his mind. He told him that for over a year and a half he had been learning how to control all of his bodily functions, but only for a short period of time. But in that time he could do alot of damage, like kill his lover Cordelia and all of his friends. And what was worse was that if he told anyone what was going on, he would kill them all.

Doing, what he had been doing for the last few months to other high level demons, Xander put his hand over the Werewolf's chest and waited. Not having to wait long a black light emanted around his hand, just as a dense black cloud streamed up from the creatures body into the light. The black stream pouring out of the creature suddenly came to an end and Xander stood to his feet as the new power radiated throughout his body. He couldn't totally desribe it but he felt stronger, more flexible, but above all else more dangerous. It felt almost like a drug. A very addictive one.

_"You see. Trust in me and power like this can be ours."_

"Shut up!" Xander shouted, as his ears perked up a bit. Turning he could've sworn that he heard Cordelia's scream, along with a sense of something evil approaching.

As if he were tuning into a radio broadcast, he heard a ceremonial drumbeat and chanting in the distance. In the blink of an eye he was off once again with almost uncanny speed. Coming into a clearing he saw three figures in dark robes standing over a woman, who was lying on an altar with dark hair wearing a beautiful white dress. Seeing that one of the figures was about to plunge a knife into her, he threw open his overcoat and whipped out his revolver and opened fire.

As all the bodies dropped from the onslaught of bullets that ripped through them, Xander ran over to the girl who was still struggling against her bonds, sighing when he saw who it was.

"What the hell took you so long dweeb?" Cordelia asked as Xander put away his gun and pulled out a long knife.

"Why can't I ever get a thanks for saving my butt Xander?" he asked as he started to cut through the rope. "Why do you always have to nag?"

"I'll nag and you'll listen to it buddy." Cordy replied with a raised eyebrow. "And since I'm yelling, we've only been married for three days. What the hell kinda honeymoon is this supposed to be anyway?"

"I know it's been rough but just... tell me what's going on?" he asked as he finished cutting off her bonds.

"Well when you left this handsome man showed up and swept me off of my feet." Cordelia replied smugly as she saw a look pass across his features. "Anyway he put the whammy on me and tried to offer me up as a sacrifice. He said that his name was Dracula."

"Dracula." Xander repeated, as his top lip started to twitch. Not being able to control it, he burst out laughing.

"What the hell is supposed to be so funny?" she asked crossing her arms over her chest.

"Come on Cordy, Dracula?" Xander replied as he calmed down a bit. "I mean we already sealed that guy away like two years ago. It was probably just some vamp trying to make a name. Now let's get back to the village. Or better yet, why don't you just go sit on top of a crypt and flaunt your neck cleavage until Dracula shows up? Then you two can talk private."

"I knew he wasn't the real Dracula." Cordy countered. "And please, you're just jealous."

"Yeah, I'm jealous of a corpse." he chuckled as he felt an evil presence. Turning he saw a man walking forward out of the darkness. He was very thin and pale, had long flowing black hair and was wearing a long cloak.

"So you are the famous demon hunter I've heard about." the vampire said with an accent. "Xan Helsing is it? Well my friend you will not stop me from my power boost. I will get the power of the gypsies and..."

"Wait, wait, wait...you're killing me." Xander said as he again burst out in laughter. "Say...say I've come to suck your blood?" he begged in a cheesy Dracula voice.

"Xander." Cordelia whined, as even she had a smile on her face.

"Okay, okay..." Xander said wiping a tear out of his eye. Not giving the fake Dracula time to respond Xander fired off a round catching the vamp full in the chest.

"No...no this cannot be." were his last words as he crumbled into dust.

"All in a days work." Xander said as he blew the smoke from the barrel of his gun, before holstering it.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, you big hero." Cordy said looping her arm in his. "Now let's go and start our honeymoon." she said taking a big whiff of his clothes. "Right before you take a bath and put on some clean clothes."

Later That Night

As Xander and Cordelia rode on horse back towards their beautiful two story home, which was built as a thank you to them from the Council, Xander suddenly had a suspicion that someone was watching them. Glancing back at his wife, who had her arms wrapped tightly around his waist, he suddenly gave her a wink.

"Hey go on ahead to the house." he whispered softly as he looked down the rock road path towards the out house. "Nature calls."

"As if I really wanted to know about your bowel movements." Cordy replied with a frown, as she took the reins of the horse, after he had slipped off of it. "But make it quick. And take a bath before you come to our bedroom." she said as she galloped off. Watching her go a sinister look crossed his features as he took out his revolver and walked to where he felt the demonic presense.

"Look, I don't feel like playing games so just come out." he said as he turned around only to come face to face with his old rival.

"I don't feel like playing games either." Vlad in human form said as he slowly pushed the barrel of Xander's gun out of his face with a finger. "On behalf of the underworld I've come to talk."

"Not to be rude but aren't you supposed to be in hell?" Xander asked, as he turned around and started to follow the demon. To his surprise Vlad smirked at his comment.

"Believe me, I'd rather be down there now instead of this place." he said looking off into the night. "I don't know how you humans can bare being here. It's disgusting."

"Sorry." Xander replied with a roll of his eyes. "Now what do you want? I'm busy...or about to get busy." he said thinking of Cordelia.

"Alot of evil beings on earth are being slaughtered..."

"I'm not hearing anything I don't like yet." Xander interrupted impatiently.

"Oh but you will." Vlad assured. "When demons and even you damn white hats die, your energy is dispersed into the great beyond to keep balance in the universe. But something is taking that power and I need your help to see what's happening."

"I'd love to help but I have something to do." Xander said walking around the demon, only for Vlad to grab his shoulder tightly.

"You don't understand, Xan Helsing. If a demon is taking this power then your world, along with mine will perish."

"Then it's a good thing I'm not a demon." Xander replied with an evil smirk and in a voice not of his own. But it was a voice that Vlad instantly recognized.

"Balthazar?"

"In the flesh." he said looking down at his body. "Well not exactly my flesh but you get the point."

"How...?"

"Before you and the others managed to destroy my body, I pushed my soul into Xan Helsing's." Balthazar explained. "And for the last few months I've been the one attracting and destroying all of the major players of evil here."

"Until now." Vlad replied. "This will soon be over."

"My thoughts exactly." Balthazar went on with a smile.

Sizing each other up, they both got into fighting stances, waiting to see who would attack first. Not being able to take the waiting game Vlad let out a growl and charged. Wanting and hoping that he could end this quickly he threw a few quick punches making his enemy take a few steps backwards. Seeing that his punches were either blocked or didn't hurt his opponent, Vlad jumped up and kicked him down.

Doing a spinning move to get back on his feet, Balthazar charged and went on the offensive. As if super charged he went into a series of punches and kicks that were so fast that Vlad was forced to the ground in merely five seconds.

"I hate this human body." Vlad said aloud as he wiped blood from a corner of his mouth. "It's just so weak."

"No it's just you that's weak boy." Balthazar replied as he took Xander's revolver out of his duster and pointed it at him. "Good bye."

With one final surge of power and anger Vlad changed into his demonic form. Taking his enemy off guard he kicked the gun out of Balthazar's hand and stood firmly to his feet.

"So you still have a little fight left in you?" Balthazar asked as he retrieved his weapon.

"More then a little." the small winged demon replied as he extended his hand. Seconds later a demonic looking broad sword materialized in his hand. Gripping it firmly, he crotched down low and ran forward in a blur. Seeing the attack coming, Xander raised up his revolver and blocked the swing knocking his opponent back.

With a growl the two demons charged at each other, both getting ready to jump and kick. Going at the same speed they jumped at the same time, and kicked each other in the center of the air. Since Balthazar's kick was stronger, Vlad fell to the ground as the stronger demon made a safe landing.

"Come, I don't have anymore time for games." Balthazar spat out, as his duster blew around him mystically. With a look of pure hatred, Vlad screamed and with his sword held high, ran forward.

Remembering Vlad's last charge, Balthazar smirked as he quickly put the revolver in its holster and made his eyes glow red. In a flash of bright light Vlad's body trembled as he came to a halt. Dropping his sword with numb hands he looked up at his old enemy one last time, before his head slid cleanly off of his body.

"Better luck next time, kid." Balthazar said with a howl of laugher, that echoed throughout the night. With a final sniff of the night air, as Vlad's body lay decomposing, he slowly walked towards the house. If he had of been paying better attention, he would have seen that someone was in the out house, looking out at him with terrified haunted eyes.

The Next Day

Late Afternoon

The Harris Estate

"Come on, Xander just stay a little while longer." Cordelia complained to her husband, as she held onto his hand, smiling up at him seductively. "I'll make it worth your while."

"Oh, I'm sure you would." Xander replied as he gave her a kiss on the forehead, before sighing. "But you know aswell as I do, that I have to investigate this demon sighting. Don't worry, I should be back before you know it."

"Alright, buddy but you better not come back dead."

"I promise." Xander replied with a smile as he walked away from the door and out of the house. Dropping her smile, Cordelia closed the door and looked over at the younger girl that stood behind it.

"Are you sure about what you saw last night, Jenice?" Cordelia asked as the two sat down on her bed. "I mean he still acts like the same old Xander to me."

"Trust me, he...he's not Xander." Jenice said shivering. "He's... he's that monster."

"Alright, I believe you." the older witch said swallowing hard. "Now what are we going to do about it?"

"We have a saying here in Romania." Jenice replied with a wiry smile. "The best way to a man's heart is through his stomach."

Moments Later

Xander slowly galloped on his horse, with his partner covering tightly with a blanket over his head and wearing gloves.

"What took you so long getting home last night?" Angel spoke up. "I thought that you were just going to hide the demon body."

"Cordelia didn't tell you that I had to save her last night?" Xander asked. "And what's with the third degree anyway dead boy? I already got Cordy nagging me. Now you?"

Without saying a word Angel just raised his eyebrow at that. It was so unlike Xander to lose patience so quickly.

"Shhh...this is it." Xander said stopping the horse in front of an old abandoned looking shack in the outskirts of the town. "I can hear three heartbeats and I can smell something demonic coming from over there."

"How can you tell that, lad?" Angel said looking over at the building, that was still to far away for even him to sense what was inside.

"Just call it a hunch." X replied getting off of Buffy. "Now come on."

* * *

"So you believe this to be the home of Van Helsing?" a demon with grey skin and large white horns, asked another of his kind.

"Yes, my lord. But the man we are seeking goes by the name of Xan Helsing." the slightly older demon replied, to his young lord as he bent down to kiss his hand, as a big demon stood behind them.

"No matter. We must inform him of what is taking place in the underworld before full chaos reigns."

As soon as he said that a metal canister shattered one of the windows beside where they were standing. Almost majestically Xander stepped through the opening holding his revolver followed by Angel, who was holding a blanket over his head to shield him from the sun's rays.

"Xan Helsing!" the balance demon lord cried out in fright.

"Yeah, too bad nobody's gonna know who you are." Xander replied as he aimed his revolver at him. Trying to save his lord the older demon leaped in front of him to take the blast. With a irratated glance Angel hit the short demon, sending him stumbling back against the wall.

Seeing that all three of them were ready to fight Angel raised his crossbow as they squared off against them making them suddenly come to a dead halt.

"Come lads, whose looking for a little devilment." as Angel joked with them a growl sounded and Angel turned his head to see that Xander was snarling at them, his face full of rage. Putting his gun away Xander leaped past Angel, tackling all three demons at once, then started to lay into them like there was no tomorrow.

Angel stared and kicked the occasional foe as it came his way, but Xander was hogging all the action, tossing the demons around like rag dolls.

Seeing one trying to run past him he shot it in the throat with an arrow and all fell quiet as Xander tossed the last demon aside. With a violent look still in his eyes Xander let out a sigh, still holding one of the demon's arms that he had torn off.

"That was fun." he said dropping said arm.

"Aye." Angel replied with a gulp as Xander walked past him and out into the late day sun. Even with his time as being Angelus he had never attacked anyone or anything so viciously.

Harris Estate

Later That Day

"There's my big hero." Cordelia said with a wide smile as she walked over to her husband. "How was today's hunt?"

"Fine." Xander replied with a suspicious glance, towards her as she took off his coat and took his hat. "What's up? You're acting... chipper."

"Why does anything have to be wrong with me?" she asked with a toothy grin, as she led him over to the dinner table. "I'm just happy to see you."

"Right." he said with squinted eyes as he watched Jenice walk into the room with a big platter of food. "Jen what's up? I haven't seen you in what two days?"

"I've um...I've just been busy." she replied nervously as she placed the platter on the table and sat down across from him. Giving both of his girls a look Xander stared down at the food and smiled.

"Man this food looks good, Jen. What's the special occasion?"

"Actually, I didn't make it." Jenice confessed as she placed a napkin in her lap. "Cordelia did."

"In... in that case I'm not that hungry." Xander replied as he dropped his fork back on his plate. He had tried Cordelia's cooking before and to say that it was terrible was an understatement.

"WHAT!!!!!?" the dark haired young witch screamed, nearly shaking. "I slave over a hot stove all day and you say you're not hungry? Listen buddy you're gonna eat my cooking, even if I have to spoon feed it to you."

"As tempting as that sounds..."

"You could atleast taste it, lad." Angel said as he walked into the room and sat down next to him. "She's your wife after all so you'll have to get used to her bad cooking sooner or later."

"Hey!" the woman in question screamed out, overhearing what the vampire had said. Letting out a sigh, Xander picked his fork and knife up and started to cut into the meat that was in front of him. Closing his eyes, expecting a nasty taste, he was surprised at the flavorable taste of it. Opening his eyes he started to dig into the food, like a pig.

"Hey, Cordy could you pass those rolls?" Xander asked with a mouth full of food.

"Maybe you were wrong about what you saw." Cordy whispered to Jenice as she passed her husband the rolls.

As Angel was about to drink some blood he looked over out of the corner of his eye at Xander, who had finally taken a bite out of the bread. Xander began to choke and Jenice screamed as she stared at her friend, who was growling and whose face was turning into that of a demon's.

"You... you used psylis eucalipsis powder didn't you?" Xander asked in Balthazar's raspy voice. "Damn women... you can't trust them for anything." with that his head jerked around before he dropped unconscious onto the table.

"Ha... and he said that I couldn't act."

"What the hell is going on here!?" Angel demanded as he jumped up from the table, eyeing both girls suspiciously.

"An exorcism." Cordelia told him sadly, as she held on to the crying girl.

After a few moments of explaining what was going on, Angel picked up Xander and placed him in his bed. Finding some metal shackles he placed them through the bed post and around Xander's wrist's and legs. Seeing her friend sweating profusely Jenice covered him with a blanket as Cordy picked up a big glass bottle and started to draw a circle around the bed with the yellow sand that was in it.

_Oh, I wonder if I should put sheets down._ Cordelia thought to herself. "Angel, are you expecting any big vomiting here? Because – I saw a movie once..."

"I really wish that you girl's would've told me about this last night." Angel was saying as he placed on the last of the iron around Xander's foot. "I could've been killed."

"That's your fault for trusting in a woman." Xander growled harshly as he woke up and looked from Angel, to Jenice, to his beautiful wife. "Isn't that right baby?"

"Don't answer him lass." Angel warned. "Let's just do this spell and..."

"Shut up, Dead Boy." Xander all but commanded. "I'm trying to talk to my wife here."

"How stupid do I look to you, that I'd want to hear what you had to say?" Cordy asked, as he looked back at her with raised eyebrows. Ignoring what he had to say Cordelia turned to Jenice and gave her a grim look. "Jenice hand me that book, so we can get started."

"No. I'm going to do this ritual."

"What?" Cordy asked surprised. "Look I don't have time for this. I'm the senior witch here missy and I say you can't do it."

"But I know this ritual and we have the supplies."

"She's right lass.You've never done anything like this before." Angel spoke up.

"You're going to turn your back on me aswell?" Jenice asked bitterly. "You're saying I can't do it."

"No I'm not saying that you can't do this." he replied swallowing hard. "I'm saying that I don't want you too. If anything happened to you, I don't know..."

"Ahh... isn't this touching?" Xander asked, mockingly and in a baby like voice. "I knew you had a thing for younger girls, but Jenice? Mmmmm you have some good taste."

"Shut your mouth you..."

"Omnis spiritus in munde. In nomine dei!" Cordelia yelled out making Xander scream and fall back on the bed. Giving the girl an apologetic look, she continued to read or try to read from the book. "Omnis spiritus in munde. In nomine dei. Omnis spiritus in..."

"Your Latin really sucks." Xander said in a deep demon voice as he sat up in the bed and looked at her.

With a snarl on her lips Cordy splashed some Holy Water on him before picking up the book and handing it to the younger girl. "He's right." she started with a smile. "I do suck at Latin."

Taking the preoffered book with pride, Jenice started to read from it. And to be honest she read Latin much better then the other young woman.

"Yeah, come on Jenny. Hit me with that old time magic."

"I know your tricks." Jenice siad swallowing the ump that formed in her throat. "You'll not deter me from what must be done."

"You do something?" Xander asked with a laugh. "What makes you think you can do anything? I mean come on we've all contributed to the team. Everybody but you."

"Don't listen to him, lass." Angel replied putting a hand on her shoulder. "Keep going."

"In odorem suavitatis. Tu autem effugare, diabole. Appropinquabit enim judicium dei."

"You couldn't even be a good daughter!" Xander yelled out, making Jenice stare down at him. "Everyone knows that your dad really wanted a son. God you couldn't even do that right. Infact nothing you do is going to make him proud of you."

"Shut up."

"All those hours of practicing magic and you still weren't good enough. Not good enough for Daddy, not good enough for your Bunica."

Jenice blinked at that and then looked back at the book: "Omnis spiritus... I...I already said that..." she said as she started to flip the pages.

"Ahhh, did you lose your place? What makes you think these people want you around any more than your family did?"

Angel and Jenice looked at each other then. Giving her a nod Jenice took a deep breath, held up the cross and started again.

"Tu autem. Effugare, diabole."

"You stupid whore!!!!" Xander screamed out at the top of his lungs. He would never admit it, but the spell was taking effect.

Having had enough Jenice lunged towards Xander with the cross held high, scuffing the circle with her foot.

"I'll show you whose stupid!" she growled as Xander held up his hand breaking his shackles. Right before he could plunge the cross into her, Angel got between them and the holy item buried itself into the side of the vampires neck. Jenice fell back, screaming as blood splattered on her and the floor, even as Angel pulled out the cross and tossed it away, shaking his hand from the pain of the cross burning him, while Xander looked on and laughed.

His laughter died out however as Cordelia dug deep into her magical and shot a beam of energy at him that tossed him back down on the bed. Her invisible fields spiraled out, partially keeping him down on the bed. Pushing through her magical ward Xander started to sit up. Fighting the pressure of it, blood trickled from her nose.

"I...I can't hold him down." Cordelia whispered more to herself. "I'm... I'm just not strong enough."

"I am." a womanly voice said from behind them. Turning just in time they saw a figure standing in the doorway, wearing a white robe and a hood, holding onto a tall wooden staff. With merely a gesture the woman sent out a blue volley ball sized energy ball that hit Xander full in the chest, knocking him unconcious once again.

"Who...who are you?" Cordelia asked as the woman slowly strolled into the room, her staff tapping the floor as she walked.

"Come on Cordy." the woman said throwing her hood back. "I know that in your perspective that it's been a long time since you've seen me, but I don't look that bad do I?"

It took Cordelia a long moment, which was a long time for her, before she spoke. Instead she just looked at the older woman that stared back at her in recognition. She had long flowing silvery white hair and looked as if she were a hundred years old. But what was most amazing about her, besides the enormous power she radiated, were her eyes. They were still full of youth and spoke of experience. They were eyes that she recognized.

"Willow?" Cordelia asked, as she ran over to her and gave her a huge bearhug.

"You two know of each other?" Angel asked, having a feeling that he was supposed to know her himself.

"It's me, Angel." Willow told the vampire, giving him a look. "That's right you're not my, Angel. I mean you're not my Angel... but the one from my time. Goddess you look different with long hair... will someone stop me from talking already?"

"Same old, Willow." Cordy said lowly. "Wait you aren't the same old Willow. Well you're old but... oh what the hell is going on? What are you doing here?"

"Well first... ouch at being called old." Willow said fake pouting. _You try being almost a hundred and see how you look, missy. _"Secondly, I'm from the year 2075. To make a long story short after you two guys disappeared we freaked. Giles even called in a few favors to the Council to see if he could find you but we didn't have any luck. After becoming a witch, I always swore that I would find out what happened to you. Who'd a thunk that after going through the files at the Council, seventy years later that I would find your marriage certificate."_And your death certificate._ She silently added. After reading the report and a newspaper article she had found, she saw that Xander and Cordelia had died in an explosion. She was figuring that Cordelia couldn't stop Xander's evil or whatever was inside of him, so she overloaded her magical powers destroying them both. _Wow it's a good thing I got here in time. _Because of the way they died it caused the future to turn out a little differently, which was why Angel didn't say anything about them when they first met. It was because he didn't know. "Now what happened here?" she asked as Cordy let out a sigh and told her about Balthazar.

Recognizing the name Willow immediately walked over to a shelf and picked up a cross.

"What are you doing?"

"Ending this." she told the former cheerleader as she stalked towards the bed and tossed Jenice the book of exorcism. "I'm going to need your help, little one."

"Willow." Xander said with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Long time no see."

"Get back." Willow warned as she stepped up to the bed and laid the cross on his chest, making it sizzle and burn his chest.

"You stupid lesbian, bitch!" Xander screamed in a demonic voice.

"Abrenuntias satanae?" Willow said firmly, as she looked over her shoulder at Jenice, who was busy tending to Angel's wound. "Read. I'll do the Latin and you do the translation."

"Do... do you renounce Satan?" she said picking up the book.

"Hell no. We're friends." Xander replied with a growl.

"Et omnibus operibus eus?"

"And all of his works?"

"Omnibus pompis eus?" Xander's chest was smoking pretty good by now, but he still couldn't budge.

"And all his pomps?"

"Exorcie te. Omnis spiritus immunde. Adaperiae! Get the hell out of my best friend!" as she yelled that and stepped back Xander began to glow and writhe on the bed. The light hit the wall and Xander layed on the bed, back in his human face.

"Willow you did it." Cordelia said excitedly. "This is all over."

"Not yet." Willow said as the light in the room turned dark and transformed into a tall figure wearing a dark robe. Balthazar had finally turned back into his human form.

"Your power." Balthazar said weakly as he reached out for Willow. "I must have your power."

"Not this night." Angel replied as he got in front of Willow and threw a punch. Using his remaining power Balthazar caught his fist before it connected and punched Angel in the stomach before slinging him across the room. Slipping into his vampiric mask Angel swung at him again, but it didn't faze him. Taking the advantage of the vampires slow movements, Balthazar punched Angel in the kidneys, sending him to the ground.

As the demon was about to deal a death blow to Angel, a hand suddenly grabbed his arm in a vice like grip. Looking over his shoulder, he saw that it was Xander.

"Surprise." he said with a smile as he punched Balthazar in the face.

Before the demon could react Xander suddenly reached up and grabbed Balthazar's throat and squeezed, then used his grip to sling him over the table and away from him. Going into a dive Xander rolled over the bed, grabbing an axe off of the wall, and facing the taller man. Cracking his neck, Xander now seemed more comfortable in his own skin, having finally gotten the demon out of his body. They exchanged punches and kicks, but Xander stunned him with a punch, and seized the opportunity by swinging the axe at his head, slicing it clean off. Panting heavily as the body of the demon started to dissapate and float in the air like ash, Xander's knees started to buckle and he nearly tumbled but was caught by Willow.

"Will's... Will's is that really you?" Xander asked bleary eyed as he looked up at her. _Man she's old_.

"I heard that, buster." Willow said as she and Cordy helped him to sit down on the bed. "And just so you know if you manly men had've stepped out of the way, I could've zapped Balthazar without a problem."

"Sometimes you gotta do things yourself." Xander winced as he got comfortable on the bed. "Besides I got tired of being his butt monkey."

"Who are you?" Jenice dared to ask as she and Angel walked over to them.

"She's our friend from the future." Xander answered as Cordelia slapped him hard across the back of the head. "Ow what was that for?"

"For talking about my cooking earlier."

"Cordy come on... I... I was possessed." Xander whined.

"Believe me that was purely, Xander."

"Um guys..." Willow tried to speak up only for Xander to cut her off.

"Come on Cordy you've tasted your food before. It..."

"It what?"

"Guys!" Willow all but shouted out, getting everyone's attention. _Even after all these years they're still the same. _"Don't you even want to know why, I'm here?"

"Um... yeah Will's why are you here?" Xander asked, sitting up.

"I'm here to give you guys your wedding present." she said at their confused looks. "I'm here to send you two home."

"Wait... Willow me and Cordelia talked about this years ago." Xander replied as Cordelia sat on the bed next to him and held his hand. "We don't want to go back to our time. We love it here."

_Damn I was afraid of this._ Willow thought to herself. "I'm afraid you guys don't understand. By coming here you created an alternate timeline."

"Well how bad could it be?" Xander asked. "It's not like me and Cordy were that important in our time." he said getting another slap on the back of the head. "Ow."

"Speak for yourself." his wife said with a grin. Even though she knew that he was right. What could they have done in the future that required their attention.

"You... both of you were... are more important then you think. Except now that you've come here and defeated some enemies that should've been in the future things have drastically changed aswell as some enemies."

"Willow is Buffy..."

"She's dead now, but after you left she lived for years." the once red headed witch informed him. "Well she died a couple of times but other then that she was fine."

"What happens that's so terrible, Willow?" Cordelia asked. "Why are we so important?"

"Because of an enemy that comes about in the future. He's the ultimate vampire and he ends up exposing the entire world to what goes bump in the night and it plunged the entire planet in the first ever human demon world war. The effects of it were... anyway it's partially your fault." she said shaking the memory out of her mind. "When you arrived here going by the name Helsing an organization started when you helped to deliver a coffin to them."

"Oh my God!" Xander replied getting out of the bed. "Willow please tell me that the vampire wasn't..."

"I'm afraid so." the older woman said with a nod.

"What's going on?" Cordelia asked as the group stared on. "Who are you talking about? What coffin?"

"The coffin of the vampire Alucard." Willlow replied letting that sink into their heads. After the general public saw what he could do, they demanded protection from the government and it was exposed that all the things people thought were myths were true and they started to kill off all of the demons. They even attacked the Council because of it."

Looking to his wife he gave her hand a gentle squeeze before he spoke. "Alright Willow we'll go back." Xander said saddened. "But I got to know something first. You're a powerful witch now. Why can't you just travel back to that time and destroy Alucard yourself?"

Letting out a breath, she started in on her explaination. "Because the Powers That Be won't let me. According to them if I did that it would effect things to much. So the only thing I could do was come back here and get you since history has already recorded you two as... missing anyway."

"Don't worry lad, me and Jenice will come with you." Angel said with a wince as his neck wound started to heal. "It'll be a grand adventure."

"Angel you know that's impossible." Willow told him. "Now guys I don't have alot of time. It's now or never."

"Jenice come here." Cordelia said, already feeling the tears form in her eyes. "I think the reason that my parents never had anymore kids was because they were selfish. I always wanted a little sister and I just wanted you to know... thanks for making that possible for me to have one now." she said pulling her into a hug. "God I'm tired of all of this sappy stuff... and I guess it's time for me to give you that power I promised you years ago."

"Why?" Willow asked with a raised eyebrow. "This girl has plenty of power."

"What?" Jenice asked. "What are you talking about?" as she asked that Willow put her hand on the young girls forehead and closed her eyes. "You'll find out in a couple of more years."

"You'd better protect Jenice with your life deadboy." Xander warned as he gathered a few things of his and Cordy's.

"You don't have to worry about that, Xander. I will." looking into the vampires eyes he saw that what he had said was true.

"Well good." he said strapping on his weapons. "And tell Giles I said goodbye."

"Xander." Willow said walking up behind him. "It's time."

"I'm going to send you guys back in time a few hours after you disappeared, to make sure that what you did in this time still happened." Willow said to Cordelia and Xander as they mounted Buffy. "The situation with Alucard won't come into place until 2010, so you'll have plenty of time to train and learn."

"I thought you said that you didn't want any of this stuff to happen?" Xander asked.

"No, I never said that. I'm still not allowed to change things that happened in this time, other then to disperse the dark energy that Balthazar stole back where it belongs."

"Alright, we're ready." Xander said with a sigh as Willow smiled up at them. Saying a few choice words a portal opened up in front of them and before they started to ride in, they looked up and saw Jenice and Angel looking down at them from their second story window. Giving them a wave goodbye Xander clicked his heel on the side of Buffy and started to ride into the open portal.

"Xander wait!" Cordelia tried to yell out over the roar of the opening. "My journal. I left my journal behind."

"I can't hear you!" Xander yelled out as they ran through, the portal closing behind them.

"What do you suppose Cordelia was yelling about?" Jenice asked Angel as she wiped a few tears out of her eyes. She was really going to miss those two.

"I don't have any earthly idea, lass." Angel said as he sat down on their bed. Feeling that he was sitting on something he stood up and saw that it was Cordelia's journal. Opening it he read a few pages and his eyes widened at what he read.

California

1999

A portal opened and with a yell Xander and Cordelia road like hell out of it. Stopping they both looked around the long stretch of highway and smiled.

"Cordy do you smell that?" Xander asked.

"What your hot breath?" she asked with a smile.

_Damn woman. _"No the smell of the trees, road kill, and pollution. We're home."

"As fascinating as that is, why don't we just go to Sunnydale and meet up with the others."

"No it's going to be dark soon." he replied looking up into the sky. "I'm guessing from where we are that we're about a few minutes from LA. Let's just go there, get a hotel and we'll head out back to Sunnydale in the morning."

"Sounds like a plan."

Making a clicking noise with his mouth, Xander lightly tapped his horse on the side and headed towards the advancing lights of civilization. Lifting her head off of his back Cordelia suddenly smiled.

"You know that Buffy's gonna kick your ass for naming a horse after her right?"

"Ha, I think I can take her." Xander replied as his horse grunted in protest. "Et Tu Buffy?" he asked. _Damn, even women horses don't like me._ With that thought in mind he rode into town and as he predicted they arrived just before sundown. Getting wierd looks from people, because of their clothing, they decided to stop at the first hotel they came too. The Hyperion.

"This place looks good enough." Xander said as he dismounted his horse. Helping Cordelia down he tied Buffy off and the two walked towards the front door, Cordy stopping to smell the flowers. As they were about the open the door to the huge hotel, someone on the other side opened it instead.

"What's up, X-man?" Faith said eyeing the both of them. "I thought you and Queen C were taking a trip together."

"I don't know what kinda game you're playing here, Faith." Xander started as he took his revolver out of it's holster and aimed it at her. "But you had better stay back."

"Whoa, X!" Faith yelled throwing her hands in front of herself. "Just calm down."

"Hey, what's going on out here?" a familiar voice asked as they came up behind the Dark Slayer. Xander nearly dropped his gun as he saw who it was.

"Jesse?" he asked, visibly shaking.

"Xander what are you doing?" Jesse asked. "And more importantly what are you and, Cordelia wearing?"

"Jesse..." Xander mumbled.

"Yeah that's my name you nut." he said reaching forward and taking the gun out of his hands. "Now come on inside and tell us what the hell is going on."

Following his lead they walked into the beautifully decorated grande hotel and saw a few people they did and didn't know sitting in the lobby. The people however seemed to know them as they waved their greetings. Seeing Buffy he was about to say something to her until a short whirlwind ran past Jesse and into his arms. With a smile on his face he squeezed the little girl hard in his arms.

"Dawn Patrol... I haven't seen you in a long time."

"It's only been a couple of days." Dawn said smiling back at her crush, until she got a good whiff of him. "Ewww, Xander you smell stinky."

"I told you." Cordelia said from behind him.

"Xander what's up?" Buffy asked as she walked over to him and made Dawn go over with the others. "Faith told me you pulled a gun out on her."

"Buffy, I just...what's going on? What are you guys doing here and why are you so chummy with her?"

"I wish you would tell me what was going on." Buffy questioned. "As for what we're doing here we're getting everything ready for Angel's hotel, for tomorrow. Don't you remember that?" she asked at his blank look. "Remember... that's the reason why you and Cordy skipped out on us... so you wouldn't have to help us with any of the work."

"Ang...Angel owns this hotel?" Cordelia asked on the verge of hyperventilating. _Man he must be loaded or something?_

"Why do you sound so surprised? Angel's one of the richest people on Earth. God I mean he probably owns half of LA."

As soon as she said that said vampire with a soul came walking down the stairs, wearing an expensive looking suit, walking with a green skinned demon with a loud yellow suit, Willow, and Miss Calendar.

"Xander, Cordy when did you two get back? Angel asked as he took a good look at their clothing. "Lorne stay down here with the others. Willow, Jenny Xander and Cordelia come with me."

"What was that all about?" Alonna Gunn asked the group as Angel and the others left the room.

* * *

"So I was a mega witch and I sent you guys too this time?" Willow asked at the end of Cordelia's and Xander's story. "Cool."

"What I want to know is what happened after we left?" Cordelia asked. "And most importantly how did you become rich?"

_Same old Cordelia._ "Shortly after you left me and Jenice sold your house and packed up to leave for America. As she got older with drifted apart... she... she got married, had kids and... she died in 1943."

"Damn."

"She died happy." Angel said placing a hand on Xander's shoulder.

"And she was one of the most powerful witches of the early twenties through the forties." Miss Calendar added. "I come from a long line of great witches and I guess I owe that to you two."

"I'm glad that you're still here Miss Calendar." Xander said grabbing her hand. "You... you look just like her." before she could ask why he was so shocked to see her, Angel with to his dresser and grabbed an old photograph of himself and Jenice and an old warn leather book.

"As for how I became rich it's all thanks to this." he said handing Cordelia the book.

"What is that?" Xander asked.

"It's my journal." Cordy said with a smile. "You found it."

"Will somebody please tell me what you're talking about?" Xander asked. "How the hell did her journal help you get rich?"

"Because I wrote about the stock market and things to invest in, in the future." Cordy replied with a shrug. "I wanted us to get rich."

"And that I did." Angel said smugly. "When me and Jenice first got here I invested and split half with her. I got out before the stock market crashed and the next time I invested it was in Disney land, Fed Ex, Microsoft, Yahoo, and a few other things. I even bought this hotel and tomorrow will be it's grande reopening."

"But how is Jesse and...?" Xander asked. "A few other people still alive?"

"Jesse... what about Jesse... death..."

"Will's calm down." he said giving his best friend's hand a squeeze.

"Because I wrote some other stuff for Angel to watch out for in the future." Cordelia spoke up. "I knew that me and you wouldn't live until the 90's so I wrote a little note with some events and big bads that you told me about, for Angel and I was going to give it to him when we got old."

"Yeah I stayed in contact with the Council this whole time and I got with Giles... the one from this time, whose still in England by the way and he helped me track all of them down." Angel informed them. "I went to Boston for awhile and I got Faith when she was in her early teens. I even went to Jamaica and got Kendra and her Watcher. We stayed in Sunnydale and I trained them both, so when Buffy came we backed her up."

"So Kendra's alive too?" Xander asked excitedly. One of the biggest regrets of his life was that he wasn't able to save her from Drusilla. "Where is she I want too..."

"She's dead." the Master vampire informed him. "She died a few month's back during the Mayor's Ascension. I was proud of her... she died fighting."

After a moment of uneasy silence Angel stood to his feet and strecthed.

"Come on let's go down stairs and tell the others what's going on."

"Yeah... yeah let's do that." Xander said standing to his feet himself. He was atleast grateful that everyone else "I need to tell them of a threat that we have to get rid of in the near future."

"Before we do that, I want my share of the money Angel." Cordelia said jabbing a finger into his chest. "If it wasn't for me you wouldn't be..."

"Easy, Cordelia you're already filthy rich." the souled vampire said with a laugh. "I already gave you... well the other Cordelia your share of the money. I even helped your father out with his... tax problems."

After that was said Xander and the others went down and told the others what was happening. Cordelia even told Buffy about the horse named after her, and as she predicted the Slayer kicked his ass. Editing out the parts about who was supposed to be dead and who wasn't. They then called Giles and he sent a team to LA and Sunnydale to help out. They got rid of all the big bads... all except the most dangerous one.

The British Museum

2010

As the bodies of London's own special force's team flew out the glass doors of the museum and got impaled on the flag poles outside, Alucard strolled out of the building slowly and smiled at the soldiers, the hundreds of spectators and news reporters that stared up at him in awe. He knew that he was supposed to keep his existance a secret but desperate times called for desperate measures. Slowly walking down the red carpeted stairs, his shadow getting bigger then life, the soldiers in the crowd suddenly opened fire on him.

Laughing off their feeble attacks he was about to fire off into the group with his special weapons when he suddenly locked eyes with someone he hadn't seen in over a hundred odd years.

"Xan Helsing?" Alucard asked, his eyes glowing red.

"In the flesh." Xander said as he walked out of the middle of the crowd. "As always it's nice to see you."

"Fool."

"Ohhh that was a nice insult Count." Xander said taking out two revolvers and cocking them back. "That was almost funnier then your swan song."

"We shall see." Alucard said firing off a shot. With super speed Xander dodged the bullet and watched as it bounced off an invisible barrier, that Willow, Miss Calendar, and Cordelia had erected.

"Your shot was a little off." Xander said with a shrug. "Maybe you're getting sloppy in your old age." lining up a shot Xander squeezed the trigger of one of his revolvers and shot towards his foe. Not showing fear Alucard stood there, even as the bullet exploded. As the smoke from the explosion cleared part of the walkway had been destroyed and the vampire was still standing tall with only a scracth on his face that was bleeding rapidly.

"Is that the best you could do, weakling? This is going to end quicker then I thought."

"My thoughts exactly." Xander replied as he ran towards his foe. Guns blazing. Running side by side they shot at each other, both missing their targets as the bullets shot wildly through the night, making cars explode and chunks of buildings crumble. Taking an advantage that he knew would be there, Xander shot his opponent knocking him to the ground.

Raising his arms spiritual wards, the size of playing cards, dropped out of his overcoat and started to float magically around him. Using his magical abilities, the wards surrounded the downed Alucard and with a snap of his fingers they exploded, leaving a small crater sized hole. As the dust and smoke dissapated, Xander saw that Alucard wasn't there. Hearing laughter, he looked up to see that the vampire had teleported and was using his powers to stand on the side of a very tall building.

"Crafty." Xander said to himself as the vampire ran up the side of the building, disappearing over the lip of it. With a smile, he floated in the air and quickly walked up the side of the building himself, until he was on the edge of it.

"I see that you have some new tricks?" Alucard asked with a laugh, watching as his opponent landed on the roof. Xander saw that he had taken more of the blast then he had thought because blood was dripped and splattered all over the floor of the building. "Well allow me to show you one of my own." he replied standing to his feet, his eyes red with madness and power. Putting his hands over his face into a rectangle shape, Xander saw the symbols on the back of Alucard's white gloves glow, even as he spoke. "Releasing control art restriction to level three, level two, level one. Situation A. The Cromwell Approval is now in effect. Hold release until target is eternally silenced." as he was talking he removed his arms from the sleeves of his coat letting it simply just hang on his shoulders whilst red fire and huge eyes shone from underneath it.

With a smile on his face Xander watched as Alucard turned into an amorphous mass of darkness. Only his head was showing.

"Now you will witness true power." Alucard spoke, as he watched Xan Helsing bow his head, toss one of his revolvers to the floor, and take the bullets out of the others one.

"You know during this fight, I only needed two things to defeat you." Xander said as his hat covered his face. "One was a nail and the other thing was this." he said taking something out of his duster pocket.

"A piece of wood?" the age old vampire asked with a laugh.

"That's right." Xander replied suddenly turning serious, his voice almost a growl as he looked up at his foe with all white eyes. "A nail and a piece of wood from the cross of christ." he stated making the vampire shut up and look down at him seriously. Dodging a lunge from the vampire, Xander jumped into the air, loaded the bullet shaped piece of wood into the revolver and aimed at the vampires heart. "Sweet dreams." he said lowly as he fired the weapon hitting the Count square in the chest.

With a loud scream that echoed all throughout London the vampire broke apart into nothingness and was no more. The No life king was finally no more.

"Amen." Xander whispered as he landed back on his feet and overlooked the scores of people that were still in the streets of London trying to find out what was going on. Glancing out into the distance he thought about how the world was going to change now because of what had happened with his battle with Alucard. It couldn't be easily sweptunder the rug now about demons because part of the battle was broadcast on live tv.

Thinking about the brave new world that was about to form, he also thought that he could finally put away the legacy of Xan Helsing and live a normal life. As he thought that a woman's scream sounded in the night's air. Maybe not.

A/N I wanted to say thanks to everyone that stayed faithful to this fic. I was originally planning on having an alternate ending to this fic with Xander and Cordelia waking up in the hospital together and their whole adventure was nothing more then a shared dream. What would've happened was Xander hit a tree knocking both of them unconscious and their Doctor who looked like Jenice's father and his nurse who will look like Jenice will tell them that all they saw was a dream. But when the Doctor leaves and Xander and Cordy talk to one another Xander finds his Helsing hat laying at his side.

To those wondering about the nail of Jesus's cross, in the manga for Hellsing Father Alexander Anderson used it and almost destroyed Alucard. So I had Xander to use it to get rid of him. That's all of a fight scene that I could think up, after watching part three of the Ova, so I hoped you enjoyed that bit. Also sorry I had to kill you like that Vlad, but it was part of Fallenange15's idea to get rid of you. He said it was to tie up loose ends. lol


End file.
